Scattered
by avidbeader
Summary: Separated by Haggar's parting shot, the Alteans and their new Paladins must regroup and find one another across the galaxies. Along the way, they will discover tragedy, treachery, and hope. Season 2 speculation, no ships.
1. Chapter 1

To those of you who were hoping for more "Harry Potter" or "Sense8", trust that I am chipping away at the writer's blocks in every way I can now that work has let up briefly. One thing that has helped in the past is following my muses in whichever direction they want to go and right now, they really, really want to play with the new "Voltron" series. I can make no assurances about when updates will happen on any of my stories right now, but I promise that I am not giving up on any of them.

 **Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

Allura fought with all her strength to keep the ship steady as she felt the wormhole disintegrate around them. Something in her chest constricted painfully as she felt the lions wink away, one by one. Their connections to her stretched and thinned, but held.

With one last shudder that felt strong enough to tear the ship apart, they lurched into normal space. Coran spared a look at her and, seeing her in one piece, began hopping around various control stations.

"The computers need time to calibrate where we landed and restart major systems. Defense, communication, they're all well below optimal levels. Everything is being rerouted to life support."

Allura nodded and drew a deep breath. As she waited, she concentrated on the lions. Pidge seemed to be nearest, while Lance and Shiro were about the same distance away but in different directions. Hunk was farther away, and Keith…the connection to Keith seemed farther away that all the others put together. Presuming they were still able to create them, would a wormhole even reach him?

She put her face in her hands, willing herself not to weep in loss and frustration.

* * *

The second the Green Lion was flung out of the wormhole, Pidge activated the cloaking device. She was in enemy territory and almost certainly alone. Caution was a must. Once she was hidden she regained control and took a look at the navigation sensors.

She was alone in space, near the edges of an asteroid belt. A very familiar asteroid belt. Her hands flew across the controls, bringing up a scan of energy readings. Sure enough, there were faint emissions coming from one location. Still cloaked, she tracked them to their source.

She found Rolo and Nyma where they had crashed on the planet inside the asteroid belt. She flew in as close as she dared and hovered, pulling up the most sensitive listening device she had found so far on the Green Lion. The voices were tinny but clear. Nyma was speaking.

"—so tired of freeze-preserved bars!"

"Be glad we have enough to last us six moons. Be glad we can drink the water here. We're in the middle of Galra space and if they pick us up we're facing arrest and prison at best and possibly death for not having the Blue Lion we promised."

Pidge gave a small sigh of relief. If they could hold out for weeks or months, she felt better about not stopping now. After all, they had betrayed her and her team once already.

Now that she knew where she was, she debated. Back to Arus? The Balmera? Or was now the time to chase down the information she had about the last known location of her father and brother?

Almost smacking her forehead, she opened a comm screen. "Princess? Shiro? Anyone? This is Pidge, can you hear me?" The resulting static suggested that the system itself was the issue, rather than an indication that they were too separated to find one another. She began diagnostics anyway, just to be sure, then returned to her dilemma of where to go.

With a heavy heart, she decided on Arus. It was known friendly territory and she could help the Arusians rebuild their village while waiting for backup. Now was not the time to be haring off alone.

* * *

Shiro came out of the wormhole and managed to bring the Black Lion back under control. He could still feel a strangeness in the connection, as if the Lion was very aware of what had happened between himself and Zarkon and had still not made up its mind. _Please,_ he thought at it through the pain, _please forgive me. I don't know what I did wrong, but I'm sorry._

The pain. He grabbed for his side, where Haggar had struck him. There was no blood but his nerves were on fire with pain from a row of glowing gashes. He thought at the Lion again, _Please, I need help_.

The Lion's flight smoothed out, as if it had decided in his favor. He brought up the navigation controls to try and find out where they were.

The map showed that he was still in the Galra Empire, near an uninhabited agrarian planet. He flew toward it for a closer look and frowned. He moved in, sliding through the thinnest of atmospheres to see the barren landscapes of a dead world.

He soared over the land, mile after mile showing blackened soil and deal vegetation to his eyes, even as the navigation screen insisted otherwise. Shiro shuddered at the barren vista and brought up sensors to try and figure out what might have happened here.

Noting that no one else was in visual range, he thought about the risks of breaking radio silence and alerting any nearby Galra to his location. His wound throbbed, sending waves of pain through him. That decided him; he needed medical help and fast. Touching the control, he called, "Voltron Force, report in. This is Shiro. Please respond."

There was no answer.

* * *

The Blue Lion entered space spiraling madly. Lance maneuvered the steering poles furiously and finally brought the ship to a halt, hovering in space. He waited for a snarky comment from Keith about his flying ability, but none came.

"Hello? Where is everyone?" He paused, but no one replied. "Come on, guys, someone say something! Shiro? Princess?" He waited again, with no answer. "Anyone?"

The silence unnerved him and he brought up navigation to try and see where he was. The nav controls showed him a solar system roughly halfway between Arus and the Galra central command, with five planets. The second planet looked similar to Earth and he decided to make his way there.

As he drew closer, his scanners picked up a single Galra ship, much smaller than the battleships they had fought so far. As there was no one around to impress, Lance opted for caution and approached behind one of the planet's two moons.

 _We've got to get Pidge to add that cloaking tech to the rest of our lions…if we ever get back together at all…_

* * *

The Yellow Lion emerged into normal space and Hunk reeled as he felt the immediate impact of energy bolts. But the armor did its job and he was able to right his lion and take stock of the situation.

A squadron of Galra drones were circling what appeared to be a basic transport ship, flanked by two fighters that were doing their best to protect it. Hunk didn't know who or what might be on the transport, but he did know Galra. He shot forward, firing every weapon he had and slamming drones into one another.

In just a few minutes, only a pair of drones remained and began to retreat. Hunk heard a voice over his comm system: "We need to stop them before they report back that we survived!"

"On it!" Hunk felt his lion's agreement and they surged after the drones. The connection between them hummed and Hunk found his hand on a new control. He squeezed and blinked as thin sun-bright streams of energy fired from each shoulder, each one taking out a drone. "Wow!"

The voice on the comm system spoke again. "Thank you, we would be dead if it weren't for you!" This time Hunk could hear babble in the background, suggesting that this was the transport.

"Not a problem. Glad I could help."

A different voice interrupted. "Are you really a Paladin? Is that a Lion of Voltron?"

"Um, yes and yes. Name's Hunk. Who are you?"

The second voice replied, "I am Representor Luvixx of the former planet Metrea."

"Former planet?" Hunk's heart sank at the implication.

"I'm afraid so. We need to get to the rendezvous point and meet up with the rest of the survivors."

"I'll come with you." Hunk felt the approval of the Yellow Lion at his words.

* * *

Keith fought with everything he had, riding the mental connection, but the Red Lion was still reeling from the damage caused by Zarkon and lost the battle with the energy currents in the wormhole, spinning out of control. After what seemed an eternity, he felt the ship emerge from the chaos into normal space, but it was hurtling toward the surface of a planet. He pulled on the steering columns frantically, barely succeeding in landing feet first. The momentum of the descent sent the Lion rolling several hundred yards and colliding with a rock cliff. His own awareness grayed out in tandem with the Lion absorbing the blow.

He came to, feeling the Lion stir as well, and his hands scrambled across the controls to help it sit up and activate the defense bubble. He had no idea what kind of place he'd landed on – better safe than sorry, all alone without his team to back him up. He breathed a sigh of relief when the force field popped into place. Several readings flashed warnings, but nothing was shown as broken beyond repair.

"Red Lion to Voltron Force, do you read me? This is Keith – can anyone hear me?"

Even though he half expected it, he swallowed hard when no answer came. He looked through the viewscreen at the ground where he had landed. It was rocky and hilly, with plenty of scrubby trees around. He looked higher.

And his jaw dropped at the four very familiar giant stone faces looking across the valley.

* * *

 **Author's Note: Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

Keith stared for a moment at the four enormous stone portraits of Mount Rushmore. He was _home_. He was back on Earth.

He could report! Even though it was unlikely that Earth would attract attention from the Galra without the Blue Lion hidden there, the fact that they had been here needed to be shared.

"Okay, Red. Do you have a way for me to communicate with the locals?"

The lion seemed to poke around his brain for a moment, seeking details on what he wanted to accomplish, then a screen popped up. Keith touched it and immediately heard frantic conversation about the Red Lion's crash landing.

He took a deep breath and touched another part of the screen. "This is Keith Kogane, former Galaxy Garrison cadet and pilot of the Red Lion. Please respond."

There was stunned silence for a moment, then several voices began yelling back at him.

"One at a time!"

"This is Lieutenant General Darzi of Earthforce Central Command. You will surrender that ship and yourself for questioning immediately!"

Keith slapped a switch, feeding more power to the defense bubble around Red. "With all due respect, sir, I will not surrender it. It is part of a force belonging to another planet and I'll be returning with it when I finish reporting what you need to know."

"Now see here—"

"Keith, this is Commander Iverson. What do you need to tell us?"

"First off, there is an alien empire, the Galra Empire, that has been expanding for over ten thousand years. They first became aware of Earth last year when they kidnapped everyone on the Kerberos expedition with Dr. Holt. The Blue Lion, another piece of the force I'm a part of, was hidden here. That was the mess that happened…how long have we been gone?"

"About six weeks, son."

"Thanks. Six weeks ago. We got separated in battle and I got flung back here by an unstable wormhole. I don't think any Galra followed me through it, but I recommend increasing long-range scans. I can share known tactical information about their ships, not that it'll help. Their technology and power is a thousand times greater than anything we have."

Darzi, apparently through with being ignored, shouted, "Cadet, you will obey the chain of command and report to the squadron that is on its way to your position!"

Keith leaned back in the pilot's chair, enjoying the feeling of sardonic amusement coming from Red that echoed his own. "Sir, I am not part of the chain of command. Haven't been since I was kicked out of Galaxy Garrison. I don't answer to any of you. I'm trying to do you a favor and fill you in on what you need to know. Sam and Matt Holt are possibly alive but prisoners of the Galra. Takashi Shirogane, as you know, managed to escape and return to Earth before he got caught up in the same chain of events I did and we all got sent with the Blue Lion to Arus."

"Then we'll get civilian security to take you in!" Darzi's shout was furious; Keith imagined some gray-haired old man frothing at the mouth. Red stirred and growled.

"Easy there, kitty. They're just scared."

"Darzi, let me handle this! What did you say, Keith?" That was Iverson.

"Nothing, sir." Keith made a snap decision. He would give Earthforce the information about the Galra, but keep Voltron and most of the information about the Alteans to himself. He didn't like the reaction he was getting. "I need to send messages to the families of the others. Shiro, Hunk Garrett, and Lance McClain. Everyone's alive, or at least was when we got separated by that unstable wormhole."

"I can arrange that. Will you meet me at Garrison headquarters? It's about a two-hour flight from your position."

"Yes, sir. I'll head there right away." Keith didn't mention that the Red Lion was capable of getting there in under five minutes. Time to think was a good thing.

* * *

Hunk led the Metrean fighters, teaching their pilots as many defensive formations as he could remember from his classes at the Garrison, given that he was trained as an engineer and not a pilot. So far they had picked up four more civilian transports, fourteen fighters, and one mid-size warship on the way to the rendezvous.

The Yellow Lion hovered protectively as the fighters docked in the warship and the transports set down at the rendezvous point. They were south of the equator on a planet near a star similar to Earth's. Hunk was reminded of a vacation his family had taken the year before he entered Galaxy Garrison, exploring the Pampas of Argentina.

The rendezvous was a grassy plain, with two wide rivers feeding into a large lake. Patches of trees lined the rivers. There would be plenty of resources once the Metreans had the chance to cultivate some crops.

At Luvixx's request, Hunk set the Yellow Lion down on the outskirts of the rapidly organizing camp and exited the Lion to meet him. Luvixx brought a small delegation of Metreans with him. Hunk got his first look at them and was glad they were still some distance away and couldn't see his first reaction. They were awfully spider-like, with more arms than Hunk was used to and dark, hairy faces.

"Honored Paladin, I am Luvixx and these are the remaining Representors of Metrea who have made it here so far. We wish to thank you – our transport would not have made it out without your help."

"Hey, part of the job. Glad I could help. And call me Hunk."

"Your modesty is refreshing, but we must show our gratitude. What can we do in return?"

"Well, how about something to eat and maybe a dip in the lake? It feels like I haven't eaten in days and I know I probably smell."

The other Metreans made a high-pitched wheezing sound. It took Hunk a moment to realize it was laughter. Luvixx clapped him on the back with one spindly arm. "Very well, food and a bath to start, Paladin Hunk. Then we will continue this discussion."

* * *

As he drew closer to the moon, Lance realized that the Blue Lion wanted him to scan the Galra ship from a distance. He did and his confidence soared to realize it was some kind of freighter, with minimal weaponry. It would be an easy takedown!

Before he could launch an attack, more information popped up. The Lion had continued the long-range scans and found a single enclave of people on the planet. It also showed that the people were a wildly mixed bag of aliens, with no more than three or four of a kind among over two hundred individuals.

"Oh no…it's a slave camp!"

The Blue Lion sent him a sense of agreement. Lance sat back for a minute, thinking furiously. His experience with the Galra so far suggested that there would be no more than a handful of officers on the ship or in the work camp. The rest would be sentries and drones. If he took out the ship first but carefully, it would provide an escape for all the prisoners. The trick would be doing so without the ship alerting the work camp supervisors, who might be able to call for help.

A new screen popped up to his right and Lance looked at it, trying to puzzle out the Altean script. His Lion was amused and shared the idea.

"A jammer? We can do that? We can keep them from contacting reinforcements?"

 _ **Yes.**_

"Then let's do this!"

* * *

Shiro gave up on communicating with the others for the moment and continued to fly over the planet's surface. Everywhere he looked, there was devastation.

 _No, not devastation. Just death. There's no sign of anything destroying parts of this planet with weapons. It's as if something just...killed it._

He had a sudden flash of Dr. Holt telling his son to be careful as they extracted samples of ice on Kerberos. Perhaps that was an answer, to gather samples of the soil and dead plants. Maybe there was a laboratory on the Castle-ship that would give Coran and Pidge a chance to examine them, if he could find a way to collect and preserve them.

That would help him keep moving. He could feel the pain from Haggar's strike growing slowly, like an infection of dark magic. His cybernetic arm was twitching in response, as if recognizing its origins in the new injury. All he wanted to do was lie down, but his instincts screamed that it would only speed up the poison seeping into his body. Action, as much as it would hurt, was necessary.

Decision made, Shiro looked for a safe place for the Black Lion. He wanted a cave, somewhere out of easy sight, just in case there were patrols. The Lion responded with alacrity, scanning and finding a cave system in the mountains on the horizon.

As they flew, Shiro let his thoughts drift back to the Holts, trapped somewhere and forced to work for the Galra. He thought of the gladiator pits, of his desperate bid to protect Matt by faking a bloodlust and injuring him, just enough. He thought of Pidge, so determined to find her family but honoring her commitment as a Paladin of Voltron.

 _I promise you, Katie Holt, that the moment we're back together as a team, we're going to find them._

* * *

As she approached Arus, Pidge started scanning. There was no sign of any active Galra tech, which was a good thing. She orbited around to where the Castle of Lions had stood and saw that the Arusian village nearby was still a wreck. She landed on the hill overlooking the village and did one more scan at the highest levels to be sure there were no threats nearby.

As she exited the Green Lion, Pidge spotted several Arusians approaching, including Klaizap the warrior. He ran forward. "Paladin of the Green Lion! You're back! Where are the others?"

Pidge pulled off her helmet. "We were separated in a battle with the Galra. I ended up nearby and came to check on you."

Klaizap bowed deeply. "We are humbled by your concern. All has been quiet here. But the king will wish to hear your news. Come!"

* * *

Allura tried yet again to enter the repair sequence on the console and yet again it failed, flashing orange and letting out a long mechanical whine.

"Augh!" She slammed both fists on the console, which whined even louder in response. "Why won't you work?"

Coran moved to her side and put his hands on her shoulders. "Perhaps you should take a break for a few minutes."

"I can't take a break! The Paladins are out there, isolated, hurt, and possibly in danger! We need the communication system back online so we can reach them!"

"Princess, think! I've got the navigation controls going again. You should be able to trace the Lions even if we can't speak to the team yet. You do that and I'll work on restoring communications."

She looked up as his practical suggestion quelled her panic. "Yes, yes! That will work!" She strode to the pilot's station and laid her hands on the controls. The star map sprang into view.

Coran looked at the map. "Quiznak, Hunk and Keith are almost on the other side of the universe! Good thing we have the wormholes." He spun the display for several ticks until the other three lions were visible. "Interesting, Pidge is back on Arus of all places. But both Shiro and Lance are deep in Galra space."

"Shiro first. He's wounded and we can't risk Zarkon getting anywhere near the Black Lion again."

"Why is that? I saw Zarkon do something to break Shiro's connection to Voltron, but couldn't he do that with any of them?"

"No, just the Black Lion. While I was in the Galra base, I could sense the Paladins and their Lions, but after Zarkon forced Voltron apart, for a short time I could sense **him** in the same space as Shiro. I can't explain it any better than that, but I know Shiro is the most vulnerable alone. Even if he were unhurt we'd go after him first."

"All right, Princess. Shiro first. Then Lance and Pidge?"

"Yes. Better to have as many of us back together as possible before venturing to the edges of known space. How long before we can open a wormhole safely?"

Coran squinted at his readouts. "An hour, perhaps?"

"Then let's get communications back online while we wait."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

Lance followed where the Blue Lion guided, activating controls that would block all communication frequencies nearby. They began with the ship, waiting in position behind the moon until it was close enough for a surprise attack.

He brought the Lion in close and shot an ice blast around the thrusters. His hope was that the ice would shut down the engines without damaging them too much. The freighter immediately slowed down. Lance cheered, feeling his Lion's approval, and moved in.

The freighter showed no signs of launching fighters but had laser cannons mounted on each corner of the boxy ship. Lance dodged the oncoming fire and used the tail cannon to take them out, one by one, then flew in. The freighter was now barely moving, the engines whining against the ice blocking them.

The freighter was much bigger than the Blue Lion, but they were able to close in and easily steer it back toward the planet. Lance kept the jammers up – he didn't want to risk the ship alerting the camp or anyone alerting a Galra battleship. As they hit the atmosphere of the planet, whoever was manning the ship appeared to give up as the slight resistance disappeared.

They landed the ship a few hundred yards from the camp. The moment the ship was on the ground, a loading door opened and sentries began pouring out. At the same time, a second wave of sentries approached from the camp.

"Okay, Blue, we have onetwothreefour…a lot of sentries coming at us. I vote for freezing their tin butts off. How about you?"

 ** _Agreed._**

Lance blinked. "Wait, you're talking! You're talking to me! In words!"

 ** _PALADIN! Pay attention!_**

Lance jumped. "Oh, yeah. Sentries!" He fired out a long burst of ice and the Blue Lion turned to easily cover all the approaching sentries in thick ice. When no more sentries emerged from the ship, the Lion sat. "Can you tell how many Galra officers are in the ship or the camp?"

 ** _Two on the ship. Two in the camp._**

"Okay, let's ice up the ship's entrance so they can't get out and go for the ones in the camp. We don't want them killing any of the prisoners."

 ** _Now you're thinking._**

"Oh, come on. I get enough of that from Keith!"

The Lion responded with a throaty chuckle.

* * *

Keith opted to land Red on the pilots' runway, then move closer to the hangars and out of the way. He set the force field to its strongest level, and Red slipped into his head to show how he could arrange for it to allow him and only him to pass through, just as the Blue Lion had responded to Lance the first time.

He exited and stopped between Red's front paws, removing his helmet. He could see Iverson waiting for him a short distance away, along with one person in a white hazmat suit who appeared to be medstaff. Keith supposed that made sense, though he would refuse to be quarantined. None of the Voltron Paladins had shown any signs of illness during their time away, just injuries. He glanced at the hand that had been burned and then healed in his attempt to steal a sample of the Galra-refined "Quintessence".

He stepped through the force field and forward. Shifting his helmet under his left arm, he held out his right hand to shake the Commander's. The faceless medtech jumped forward, thrusting a scanner toward Keith. "Hold still, we need to check you over for any dangerous pathogens."

Keith obliged, rolling his eyes. "I feel perfectly fine. None of us have gotten sick at all. I could…" He trailed off. He had been about to say _tear into a pizza_ , imagining how Hunk would have been begging for food the moment they hit their home solar system. But he realized that he wasn't hungry. He ought to be starving – the last meal he had had was at least a full thirty-six hours ago. But for someone who had not eaten or slept, had been through a prolonged fight and injured, he felt remarkably healthy.

"Just another minute while these readings come through…"

Keith was about to reply when something sharp struck him in the right side of the neck. "Ow!" Even as he reached for whatever had hit him, his muscles started to feel wobbly. "What the hell?" He reached up and pulled away something that had pierced through the cloth under-armor and into his skin. Seeing the tranquilizer dart in his hand, Keith snarled and flung it away, grabbing for his bayard. Iverson and the medtech backed away in alarm. He could feel confusion from Red and the instinct to attack gave way to the need to get back inside the force field.

But as he started backpedaling, two more blows hit his neck, on the left and from behind. He tried to get his helmet back on his head for protection, but he was rapidly losing control of his body. A fourth dart struck near where the first one had landed and Keith reeled, his limbs going numb. Iverson leapt forward to catch him.

The last thing he knew before falling into darkness was Iverson's unhappy face as he said, "They pulled rank, son. I'm sorry."

* * *

Feeling clean and refreshed, Hunk dressed in his own clothes and shook out his wet hair. He fastened his bayard to his belt pouch, gathered his armor, and returned to the Yellow Lion. Luvixx and two other Representors were there, along with a new Metrean. This one had streaks of pale fur across the top of the head and was dressed in rust-colored clothing, compared to the Representors' green.

The new Metrean bowed. "Greetings, Honored Paladin. I am Xivay, granddame of the largest clan in the settlement. The Representors have asked me to see to your needs while you remain with us. I am a trained xenobotanist and my hobby is cooking. It is hoped that I and my fellow scientists will be able to feed everyone safely with the local plant life until we can begin raising our own crops."

Hunk's eyes lit up. "Great! I love cooking!" The Yellow Lion almost purred in his mind as it shared something. "My Lion says it has a database of hundreds of planets and biological workups of different races. It can help us figure out some of what we can eat faster."

Xivay gave a short burst of that wheezing sound, her mouth stretching wide in their version of a smile. "I am doubly honored to meet a fellow gastronomer. For the moment, I have some basic rations that are used by a variety of species in our quadrant of space." She held up a container and began passing it around.

Hunk clapped his hands together and rubbed his palms greedily. As the group sat down, Luvixx spoke. "Honored Paladin—"

"Seriously, just call me Hunk."

"Er, Hunk. We will be spending the next several weeks establishing our base here. You are welcome to stay with us as we do so."

Hunk looked up from the flat cracker-ish thing he was sniffing. "I'll stay for now. I figure someone will get in touch soon and then we'll sort it all out." He bit into the slab and chewed thoughtfully before swallowing. "Not bad. Needs salt."

* * *

As the Dance of Gratitude in her honor came to an end, Pidge hid a sigh of relief. The Arusians dispersed, including the King, and Moontow the dancer was the only one left. She gathered the leaf fans used as props in the dance and nodded to Pidge.

"Is anything going on right now?"

Moontow shook her head. "We would have been working to clear the wreckage in our village when you arrived. Now it is time to do our daily cleansing and begin preparing the last meal of the day. It will be about three _bleer_ before it is time to eat."

"How long is a _bleer_?"

"It's a _bleer._ " Moontow looked at her like she was an idiot.

"Okay, let's try this. From the time the sun comes up to the time it goes down, how many _bleer_ is that?"

"Ah, fifteen during the current season."

Pidge calculated in her head. "Okay, so I have almost two and a half hours before dinner time."

"What is an hour?"

"It's a little over one and a quarter _bleer_."

Moontow nodded, satisfied, and took off.

Pidge wandered around, watching as the villagers gathered in the few houses that were still intact to bathe. She walked over to where they had put together a communal water trough from the remains of the water tower. The fallen sentries that had been used as decoys were piled to one side.

 _If only they had more manpower, this would go so much faster!_

She poked at the pile of sentries, noticing an intact hand. She scanned it with her wrist module and found it would still run if it had an energy source.

 _Just like Shiro's hand must run off his biochemical processes even though he's not Galra…_

 _Hand…Galra hand_ … _plenty of hands here…_

And suddenly Pidge had two brilliant ideas at the same time.

* * *

They were ready to try and open a wormhole. Even working together, Allura and Coran had not managed to get the communication system online. It had taken the mice going into the panel and investigating to discover the one broken cable and drag it out. At that point Allura sent Coran in search of a replacement while she took advantage of the solitude to focus on her target.

She had the coordinates for the Black Lion in place and took several deep breaths to steady herself. She pictured the Black Lion in her mind, dwarfing all the others, shifting to form the body and head of Voltron. She pushed out every other worry, every other fear, one by one.

When her entire mind was honed in on the Black Lion, Allura placed her hands on the controls and sent the command for a wormhole. It sprang into being and she guided the ship through.

The journey was smooth, just as it should be, and Allura almost wilted in relief. Coran reappeared with a jumble of cables in his hand. "Ah, good, the wormhole is behaving. I found the cables, but there's just so many of them, I thought I'd bring them all and find the right one, if you can tell the mice we need them to put it in place."

She nodded. "That won't be a problem." She thought her request at the mice, who dove into the tangle of cables and began searching for the correct one. She was feeling more on balance every second, as the link to the Black Lion strengthened with proximity. _Find Shiro and the Black Lion, find the others, and decide what to do next._

The exit appeared exactly where it should and the Castle-ship shot out of the wormhole.

Coran focused on the navigation console. "It looks like the Black Lion is in a cave nearby. That's clever of Shiro to hide it, being in enemy territory." Surprised that Allura hadn't agreed, he looked up.

Allura's face showed shock as she looked at the viewer to the outside. Coran looked and saw the endless landscape of black and gray. "Oh, no. What happened here?"

"I don't know. Let's land the ship and take a pod to find them."

* * *

Shiro explored the Black Lion, disgusted with himself that it had taken this long to actually see what there was besides the cockpit. He found it was mostly machine, but included a tiny space where the pilot could rest and a larger area that could hold maybe twenty-five others in an evacuation situation. The sleeping area had a few supplies for cooking, but nothing that would help him with gathering or storing samples of the soil and dead plants to investigate. He also found what appeared to be an Altean first-aid kit. He looked at the medicines in disgust, unable to read what might be helpful.

He could feel the Lion in his head as he searched. Its attitude seemed to be one of indifference to the mystery – if anything it acted as if it were waiting for something.

Shiro exited and paused at one enormous front paw. He put one hand on a claw, still feeling as if the connection to the Lion were tenuous and shaky. A new sense had crept in as well, of missing something important. Before it could overwhelm him, Shiro stumbled out of the cave and into the weak morning sun.

He began to climb the slope next to the cave entrance, looking for a better view. It took him much longer than normal, stopping every few steps to catch his breath and press a hand to his wound. He had just crested the ridge when a booming sound echoed through the valley. He looked up to see a wormhole, a stable one, and the Castle-ship exiting it.

"Yes!" he cried, scrabbling down the hill. He lost his footing and managed to slide the rest of the way. His ribs sizzled in pain with every jolt. The ship landed and almost immediately a pod sailed out from one of the hangars.

He hurried across the valley floor to meet the pod, shouting into the comm link in his helmet. "Princess! Coran! Over here!" He broke into coughing as his ribs objected.

There was no reply and he slowed down, suddenly uncertain. What if the Galra had captured the ship and were forcing Allura to guide them to the Lions?

But even as he slowed down, those in the pod spotted him and it made a beeline toward him. Knowing he was too far from the Lion, he activated his wrist shield and brought his cybernetic hand up in defense.

The pod halted some ten yards from him and the hatch popped up to reveal Allura and Coran. The princess jumped out and ran at him. "Shiro! You're all right!" She threw herself at him and Shiro barely managed to deactivate his weaponized hand before catching her and swinging her around.

He tried to set her down gently, but his knees buckled and they both tumbled to the ground. Allura gasped as she saw the glowing claw marks in his side. "Careful!" She rose and helped pull him to his feet. She tightened her arms around his neck once more. "I am so relieved you're safe. We'll get you healed up in no time. Then we can find the others."

"The others? But Keith and I were the only ones dragged out…"

Allura sobered at that as Coran joined them and held out a hand to shake.

"No," she replied. "All the hangers were still open when we entered the wormhole. Normally that would not be a problem, but whatever happened to destabilize it sent all the Lions in different directions. I can locate the rest, and we should have communication up soon."

"That's great! We should go after Keith next – the Red Lion took a lot of damage from Zarkon and he might be injured."

"Actually, we need to go after Lance next. Like you, he's in Galra space alone. Pidge made it back to Arus and should be safe for a time. Hunk and Keith are much too far away for the Galra to be an issue."

Shiro frowned, but couldn't argue with her logic. "Before we go, do either of you have any idea what happened here?"

Allura bent over and plucked a handful of brown leaves, studying the blackened roots that came with it out of the loose, dry soil. "If I didn't know better, I'd say the area has been drained of Quitessence. I remember some of Father's scientists experimenting, trying to improve the process of harvesting it. One of the experiments produced a large area like this, as wide as the Castle is tall. But from what we can see, the entire region is like this."

"The entire planet is like this."

Allura's eyes widened at Shiro's statement. Coran had knelt to get a closer look and jumped to his feet as if he had been stung. "Quiznak!"

"Coran!"

"It's the Galra! It has to be! Keith showed me a facility at the universal hub – the amount of Quintessence they had was unbelievable! They've found a way to steal an entire planet's life force!"

Allura put her hands to her mouth in horror. "That makes it more important than ever that we stop them. Coran, could we use the rebirth ceremony? Restore this planet?"

Shiro's negative response was immediate, but Coran was quicker. "Absolutely not, Princess. The rebirth ceremony gives life back to already-living creatures like the Balmera. This is a planet, not a Balmera, and everything here is completely dead. It would kill you to try and it wouldn't be enough to restore anything."

"I agree with Coran. If there were a population on this planet that needed our help to survive, it might be different. But right now we need to focus on getting the others so we can actually do something about the Galra."

Allura looked from one to the other and relented. "You're right. We have to focus on getting the others back and as quickly as possible."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

Hunk was in heaven. The camp was surrounded by food sources. He teamed up with a different person each meal, exchanging cooking techniques. The Yellow Lion scanned and broke down information on everything, informing him from the extremely useful database which things were safe to eat for both him and the Metreans.

When he wasn't helping with either his engineering skills or just another strong back, Hunk helped entertain the children in the camp. Whether it was taking them for rides in the Yellow Lion's speeder or introducing Earth games like Red Rover or Duck Duck Goose, the children were fascinated by him and had to be pried away when it was time for other tasks.

Hunk didn't mind. All the work distracted him from the fact that he had yet to hear from any of his friends, though the Lion didn't seem to share that worry. He was also doing some good – more than once Metreans young and old had needed a shoulder to cry on as it sunk in that their planet, their home, was gone forever. And he had two pretty solid shoulders.

Xivay returned the favor the evening of the second day. She approached Hunk, who had begun to poke around the Yellow Lion to learn its mechanics. It seemed amused by his curiosity and ready to humor him, often leading him in various directions. He had taken a break for a moment and tried, yet again, to make contact with the rest of his team.

"Come on, guys. There is nothing wrong with my comm system, which means that if there's no signal, then there's something wrong with your systems. And that means your Lions are really damaged or you're hurt or captured. And the castle! I know Sendak really screwed things up with that Galra crystal, but communication was just fine during the battle. Unless the wormhole did something. And given that I ended up on the other side of the Empire from Arus, then anything's poss—eep!"

In his rambling, Hunk had not heard Xivay approach and jumped when one of her three-fingered hands touched his shoulder. She gave that wheeze of laughter. "I am sorry, Hunk. I did not mean to scare you."

Hunk clutched his chest, waiting for his heart rate to slow. "It's okay. I needed the adrenalin. Did you need something?"

"I wanted to see if you are all right. You have been so helpful to us, it's easy to forget that you were separated from your people as well."

"I'm managing. Keeping busy helps. That way I don't have to think so hard about whether the others made it out of the wormhole in one piece, or if any of them got recaptured by the Galra, or how much longer it'll take to make contact with Earth…"

And suddenly it was all too much. Hunk put his hands to his face to hide the tears that were coming. "I don't know if I'll ever see my family again."

He felt four of Xivay's hands on his shoulders and arms, guiding him to sit down. "It is very distressing, to not know. We don't know how many more evacuation ships got away from Metrea. We don't know if we're far enough away that the Galra won't find us again. Not knowing is very hard."

Her last two hands gently pulled Hunk's hands from his face and she looked closely at his tears, a biological function that was not part of Metrean physiology. "Fascinating…" she murmured under her breath before going on. "But you are very brave, Hunk. You care and you try to help others. As long as we are here, you will have a place with us when you need it. In the meantime, let your sorrow out. You'll concentrate better once it's in the open."

Hunk accepted her invitation and cried on her shoulder, quickly forgetting the strange feel of more than two arms supporting him as he released a flood of fear and worry.

* * *

Lance landed the Blue Lion next to the swarm of iced-in sentries near the transport ship. He exited, brought out his bayard, and, with the resulting rifle, shot through the chests of the first few sentries. Digging through the broken ice, he collected several Galra weapons and enough restraints for the four officers. He approached the transport, circling until he found the comm. He could see the two officers through a window, arguing with one another. Lance put down his load, brought out his rifle, and waited.

Finally, one of the officers spotted him and quieted the other. Lance aimed his rifle and grinned.

"Okay, fellas, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. What's your preference?"

The Galra looked at one another, then threw their weapons down and raised their hands.

"Good choice. Now come out of the ship."

Lance waited until they had exited the comm without picking up their weapons before circling to the loading door. He kept his rifle up, not trusting the Galra to grab new weapons on their way out.

But when they exited, Lance realized that these were not the elite of the Galra. Their movements showed age, as did the greying tips of the fur on one's ears and the wrinkles on their faces. These were ferrymen, not looking for a fight. Lance tossed a set of cuffs at them.

"If you would be so kind."

Grey obeyed, binding his partner's hands behind him, then Lance quickly did the same to Grey. Bringing his rifle up again, he motioned for them to go first.

"Let's see if we can convince your buddies in there to be smart, too."

As they approached the gates to the camp, Lance began running scenarios through his head. His biggest worry was that the officers in the camp would take hostages from the slaves, and he had no idea yet how to stop them without some of the slaves being hurt or killed. As the simulator had proved many a time back on Earth, Lance wasn't necessarily the best at emergency situations.

 ** _I think you are covered, Paladin._**

Lance's head snapped up at that. The officers in front of him had paused.

The gates opened and a crowd began approaching. The leaders included the other Galra officers, wrapped in some kind of rope, and the slaves coming behind them. Two of them held Galra rifles while many of the others had makeshift clubs and spears. As they got closer, Lance blinked in recognition.

"Pidge?"

No, he realized almost immediately. That wasn't Pidge holding one of the rifles. Too tall, no glasses, and wearing a scraggly beard. He walked with a slight limp.

And then the penny dropped. "Holt! Matt Holt!"

The young man froze for an instant, then scowled and aimed his rifle. "Who are you? How do you know my name?"

"I was a cadet at Galaxy Garrison! I know your sister! She's part of the Voltron Paladins!"

An older human staggered forward through the throng of aliens. "Katie's here? How?"

"I can explain later. First we decide what to do with these scumbags, then we get everyone on the transport and get it going. You can come with me in the Blue Lion." Lance raised his voice. "Okay, everyone! We need as many provisions as we can collect loaded onto the transport. Let's get going, before any patrols have a chance to check in."

* * *

It took Pidge most of the time until dinner, but she was very satisfied when a small Arusian came to fetch her. She picked up the remote control she had built and pressed a switch. "All right, fall in and follow me!" Three metal figures moved forward.

The little Arusian squeaked in terror and Pidge whirled to calm it. "No, no, don't be afraid! I fixed them from all the broken parts and now they'll help you! See?" She held out the controls. "Press there."

The Arusian did, making three Galra sentries snap to attention. Another press, and they switched to salute with the other hand. The little alien snickered at that and began pressing the button rapidly, making the sentries almost dance.

"See? They're our friends now. Maybe you'd better run ahead and warn the king to make an announcement. I'll bring these guys."

The Arusian handed the control back to her and sped off. Pidge piled the remaining sentry parts on the antigrav platform that she had made from the chestplates of the remaining sentries. She headed for the village, towing the salvage and leading her three new helpers.

 _Sentries to help the Arusians rebuild faster. One antigrav platform for the speeder to tow the equipment. And one hand left over, with a generator to reactivate their central computer and get the rest of its information…if there's anything left of it._

In the back of her head, she felt the Green Lion almost purr in approval.

* * *

The cryo-tube had finished its work and Shiro stepped out feeling healthy and energized. He had gone through some troubling dreams while sleeping, visions of his time as a prisoner. He shoved the memories away for now and dressed quickly so he could join the Alteans in the control room.

As he entered, he heard Allura's relieved cry of "Finally!" She clasped her hands together as the display for the communication system glowed blue, showing it was functioning correctly. Shiro and Coran turned to one another and put out their hands. The result was awkward as Shiro had gone for a high-five while Coran tried an Altean finger-lock.

Trying to ignore the amusement from the mice, Shiro stepped forward. "Shall we try?"

Allura nodded and put her hand to the panel. "Voltron team, this is Allura. Do you read me? Please respond!"

At the silence, the princess looked ready to cry. Shiro put one hand on her shoulder. "Try again. If they're not in their Lions and don't have their helmets on, they may not hear you the first time."

She nodded. "Voltron team, please respond. This is Allura. Can you hear me?" The next several minutes were agonizing as Allura repeated her call.

And like a dam bursting, the responses suddenly flooded in.

"Allura? Sorry, Green Paladin reporting! Are you all right?" Pidge's voice was eager.

"There you guys are!" Hunk seemed just as pleased.

A strange voice echoed, "Paladin Lance, someone is calling from your helmet."

"What? Oh! Great! I'll be right back." Lance's voice echoed, as if from a distance. They heard rustling, then he spoke much more clearly. "Blue Paladin here, what's the situation?"

"We have communication back and the Castle-ship wormholes are working again," Shiro replied. "We'll be able to get everyone back together shortly."

"Wait," Allura interrupted. "Where's Keith?"

There was no reply. Allura and Shiro looked at one another, both suddenly fearing the worst.

"Red Paladin, please respond!" Allura's voice rose and Shiro grabbed her hands in his.

"Princess! Don't panic. You said yourself he was at the greatest distance. It's possible we simply aren't close enough."

"That's true!" Coran moved to navigation and brought up the star map, spinning it as he looked at a readout on the nav panel. "His position is past the other side of the Galra Empire. The records Pidge got from the Universal Hub show the Galra have barely begun scouting there. Their maps call it X-9-Y."

 _He was kneeling on the floor of a ship, surrounded by strange figures in dark metal armor. To his side, Matt was also kneeling, the helmet of his deep-space suit still on._

 _"_ _Emperor Zarkon, we were scouting System X-9-Y as ordered when we found these primitive scientists. I don't think they know anything useful."_

"Shiro? Shiro, you're hurting me!"

He snapped back to awareness, unclenching his hands from around Allura's. "That's the number for our solar system! Keith's all the way back home!"

Coran took another look at the map. "You're right! He's on your Earth!"

* * *

The voices were slurred at first, a steady murmur of sound. Then he could hear movement, things being set down and footsteps. As the voices became clearer, the last memories flooded back. Coming out to meet with Iverson. Being told to hold still for a scan and playing right into the hands of snipers armed with tranquilizers. Iverson apologizing. Then nothing.

Keith could feel his body again, the numbness passing. He kept his eyes shut and tried to relax his muscles and stay calm. If they couldn't tell that he was awake from a change in heartbeat or breathing, he might learn something.

"What have you got, Yeltsin?"

Keith recognized the voice as the general, Darzi.

"No alien alterations, sir. He's in the peak of health. The only anomaly is that it took four tranks to bring him down."

"Four? That's impossible! One's enough to bring down a three-hundred-pound man!"

"To be precise, it took four to bring him down fast enough that he couldn't attack Iverson or get back behind that force field around the ship. If we'd had the luxury of time, two might have done the job eventually. One did not."

"Did you check him for weapons?"

"His armor's over there, sir. We don't know what he was reaching for, but we haven't found anything yet. The tech in this stuff is centuries beyond our own."

 _Try millennia,_ Keith thought.

The medtech continued, "Have you gotten anywhere with the ship, sir?"

 _Red! Do whatever it takes to stay safe!_

The responding mental growl made no promises, biding its time for the moment.

"No. Nothing we've tried so far has made any impact on that shield. The only thing we are reasonably sure of is that no transmissions are being sent."

"Hold on, sir! He's coming around!"

Keith cursed mentally, but tried for whatever element of surprise he had left. Snapping his eyes open, he jackknifed his body up and, discovering whatever he had been lying on rolled, sent it in the direction of the general's voice. He tumbled in the opposite direction, into the medtech, who screamed high and shrilly. Keith pivoted, throwing the medtech into the first of the guards coming in the door. Seeing the next guards with trank pistols in their hands, he snatched up a metal tray, scattering the supplies on it. He was able to deflect three darts with it, but the fourth struck him in the leg. He batted the fifth away as the general yelled, "Keep firing!"

Once the second dart landed, it still took three guards to bring him down and twenty minutes to lose consciousness.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

After verifying with the Arusians that sunset wouldn't happen for a couple of _bleer_ at this time of the year, Pidge got the speeder from the Green Lion and tied the loaded antigrav platform behind it. She took off, keeping the pace steady so none of her potential equipment would slide off, and headed for the Galra crash site.

She slowed down as she approached. The Galra monster had landed squarely on top of the crashed warship, wrecking it further and scattering pieces everywhere. Much of the debris was buried in dirt in a huge circle around the site.

"Okay, first thing I need is something to detect buried pieces. I don't suppose you'd consider helping me dig? That's usually a dog's job."

She felt assent from her Lion and grinned. "Thanks."

It took less than an hour to have a working metal detector. Pidge began circling slowly, mapping on her wrist display where the largest pieces of wreckage were found first. When she found pieces on the surface, she stopped and examined them closely, looking for any sign of electronics or technology, then laid anything potentially useful aside.

By the time the sun was low on the horizon, she was barely a quarter of the way around. She mapped her stopping point and sighed. She gathered the bits and pieces she had found onto the antigrav platform to study in the village. She sent a questioning thought at the Lion.

 _Am I doing the right thing? Does this have any chance of working?_

 ** _Yes._**

Before Pidge could react to that answer in her head sounding so much like a word, the Green Lion sent a suggestion to get her helmet on. She did so and the visor immediately turned a soft yellow. Startled, she looked around, and then down.

"Holy…"

She could now see through the dirt and locate the debris from the ship. She brought up her wrist display to add to the information. She was walking forward slowly when a familiar voice broke in, making her jump.

"Voltron team, this is Allura! Please respond! Can you hear me? Anyone? Please answer me!"

"Allura? Sorry, Green Paladin reporting! Are you all right?"

The other team members chimed in, jubilant to be able to talk to each other again, until Allura realized that Keith was not responding. Pidge listened in as they determined that Keith was back home. She returned to her mapping of the crash site, but that voice spoke again.

 ** _Tomorrow._**

Pidge bit her lip, but it made sense. She could try and persuade Allura and Coran to go after the other Paladins first, as she was perfectly safe, and use the time to try and complete her goal.

She towed the antigrav platform back to her speeder and retied it. With one last look around as the sky shifted to twilight, she boarded the speeder and headed back to the village.

* * *

After some initial confusion, Dr. Holt stepped up and began organizing everyone, directing the smaller and faster captives to gather all usable provisions into large containers. Then the stronger aliens would ferry them to the transport. Three particularly tall aliens with red scales and very impressive teeth asked to be the guards for the Galra. Holt nodded and sent them to their posts with rifles.

Lance turned to him. "Why did you do that? It's not like the Galra need to be guarded."

"Those are members of the Jocrai. The Jocrai were a fairly large empire when the Galra arrived at their borders. Probably the toughest resistance the Galra had in the history of their expansion. Tough enough that the Galra very methodically destroyed every single inhabitable planet in their home system and chased down as many members of the race that they could. It's believed that there are no more child-bearing Jocrai left. So once the few that still survive as slaves die out, the entire race ceases to exist."

Lance swallowed hard. "Oh. Wow. Yeah, they can guard the Galra."

"Now, tell me, how did you and Katie meet and wind up on this side of the universe?"

"Um, it's a really, really long story. The short version is that there's one thing in the universe that has a chance at stopping the Galra Empire. It's a super-robot named Voltron."

"We've heard of it." As Holt answered, Matt came up to listen in.

"Well, Voltron is made up of five ships, like mine." Lance waved in Blue's direction. "Pidge—I mean, Katie—pilots the Green Lion."

Two voices spoke at the same time.

"What do you mean, Pidge?"

"My sister's a pilot?"

Lance looked back and forth between them and decided to start with Matt. "Yeah, she is and she's good. Now, she's always tinkering and coming up with things to help improve the ships, but she's just as good at fighting as the rest of us."

Dr. Holt waited a moment, until he realized Lance was dodging the question. "And…Pidge?"

Lance scrubbed the back of his head, a little embarrassed over the whole thing and how he had totally missed Pidge's true identity before. "Well, I think she didn't take the reports of Shiro screwing up and costing you all your lives very well."

Matt snorted at that. "I wouldn't have. Shiro's one of the best pilots ever."

"Well, for whatever reason, that was the story the Garrison released. And—and I'm guessing that Katie decided the best way to investigate was to sneak in. She pretended to be a boy, Pidge Gunderson. We got assigned to the same team. But she kept investigating until Shiro escaped and got back to Earth."

Dr. Holt's expression had slowly shifted from bewildered to admiring. "That sounds like Katie. She never gives up when something really matters to her."

They noticed that several of the smaller captives had stopped and were looking at a bench where Lance had left his helmet. One of them waved an arm and called, "Paladin Lance, someone is calling from your helmet."

"What? Oh! Great! I'll be right back." Lance left the Holts and went over to pick up his helmet. "Blue Paladin here, what's the situation?"

Shiro's voice responded, "We have communication back and the Castle-ship wormholes are working again. We'll be able to get everyone back together shortly."

Lance dropped the helmet back on the bench and hopped up to stand on it. "Okay, everyone, good news! We have a support ship and I just heard from them. They should get here soon and we'll be able to help everyone get back home one way or another."

The small alien that had summoned him tapped at Lance's leg and looked up with huge yellow eyes. "But, what if we don't have a home anymore?"

Lance paused at that, not enjoying the feeling of shoving his foot into his mouth all the way to the knee.

* * *

The second time he began to wake, it was different.

Keith could feel his limbs, ready to move. But he could also feel wide straps, pinning him to a gurney. He assumed it was a gurney, just like when they had Shiro.

 _Great._ He glanced around the room, not bothering to be stealthy about it.

Two medtechs were next to him, with two guards at the door. They had pulled one sleeve up on the black uniform that he wore under his armor. As he felt his arm lifted enough to slide a tourniquet under it, he couldn't repress a shudder. He hated needles. The male medtech spoke while the woman set the tourniquet in place.

"All right, Cadet Kogane. Given your reactions earlier, the general has assumed that you aren't going to cooperate. So we try a little amotrazephine to loosen your tongue." As he finished speaking, Darzi himself entered with yet another guard.

"Oh, come on! I was trying to tell you what you needed to know when I first arrived! You're the ones that decided shooting me with tranks was a good idea!"

Darzi growled, "You disobeyed a direct order to surrender an alien ship. A ship remarkably similar to one that appears to have been sitting in a cave out there for thousands of years, judging from the age of the carvings everywhere! Earthforce needs to know how an alien ship has been on our planet for so long, only to wake up just as **another** alien ship arrived!"

Keith directed his gaze to the ceiling. "Look, I'll happily tell you anything about the Galra that you want. It won't do you much good, they're too powerful for you. But that is all I'm willing to share right now."

Darzi strode forward and leaned over Keith, his face darkening in anger. "You don't get to decide that."

"And you don't get to try and confiscate someone else's ship when they haven't attacked you!" Keith snapped and looked away, trying to see where his armor or bayard might be.

Darzi seized a handful of Keith's hair, wrenching his head back around to face him. "See here, Kogane. I've gotten your record from Galaxy Garrison out of Iverson. You were trouble when you were here. You weren't smart and it cost you your place. Now is the time to be smart. I'm sure you'd prefer a nice comfortable room to where you are right now. You want to tell us about these Galra and you want to tell us about this Voltron that the Kerberos pilot said we needed."

Keith set his jaw and directed his eyes away from the general. As he did, he felt Red in his thoughts again, a touch full of questioning and worry. _No. Stay where you are. You're safe where you are._

A booming lion's roar echoed loud enough to shake the foundations of the building. But Keith felt Red retreat for the moment after voicing the protest.

Darzi glared at the medtechs. "Get that stuff in him **now**. Contact me as soon as he's ready."

Keith winced as he felt the needle poke his skin and slide in.

* * *

Hunk flew over the grassy plain, relishing the gleeful squeals from the three Metrean children crammed with him in his speeder. He had the windshields down and the children were waving their numerous arms as they shouted for him to go faster. The day was glorious and sunny, with just a few fluffy orange-yellow clouds in the sky.

It was time to turn around and head back to the camp for another group. Hunk looked all around out of habit before turning, since there wasn't much to collide with out here. A shadow caught his peripheral vision and he looked up to see what was making that odd, spiky shape.

"Quiznak!"

It was a Galra fighter, possibly a scout. Hunk stopped the speeder and jumped out, shutting the windshields so the kids were inside, and pulled out his bayard. One blast from his cannon and the fighter was scattered into shards that rained down.

As he took the kids back to the camp, he remote-connected to the Lion and scanned the area for more fighters, but found none. Once in the camp he helped the children out of the speeder and put them in Xivay's hands to calm down. He searched for Luvixx, pulling him away from a discussion with one of the multitude of committees that had formed in the community.

"We've got trouble. I just took down a Galra fighter out near the north river. It was alone, so it may have been a scout."

"But you don't know how much information it was able to send back first." Luvixx spent a few minutes deep in thought. "Obviously we can't move the camp quickly. It took the committee months of research and exploring to find this site when the Galra got too close to Metrea. And that was too long—we ended up losing possibly seventy percent of our population."

Their conversation was interrupted by one of the other Metreans in the committee that had been listening. "We don't have enough firepower to defend ourselves if a Galra warship comes."

"I can take care of a warship with the Yellow Lion. But then they could send a fleet and I can't handle a whole fleet."

Another Metrean spoke up. "What about our prey-stalkers? If everyone wore one?"

Seeing Hunk's bafflement, Luvixx explained, "The prey-stalker is used by hunters. It is worn on the belt and produces a holographic shield that hides the hunter from sight. As long as the hunter stays downwind and quiet, they can't be sensed."

The first Metrean objected, "First, the prey-stalkers are designed to hide a single person and second, we don't have more than a few dozen among the population. We'd need one for every single one of us here and we wouldn't be able to hide the ships or equipment."

Hunk propped his chin in one hand and thought for a moment while the Metreans continued to debate. After running through the theory behind his idea and finding nothing wrong at first glance, he raised a hand. The gesture earned him some odd looks, but he got their attention.

"Exactly how many of these devices do you have?"

The one who had suggested them counted in his head briefly. "Perhaps fifty?"

"I have an idea. What if we turn the individual devices into a net, where they are connecting their signals to cover a wider area? We lay them around the perimeter, activate them all at once, and that could give us a shield big enough to hide the camp."

The Metreans all stared at him. As the silence grew longer and more uncomfortable, Hunk fidgeted and finally asked, "Not good?"

With that the Metreans began to laugh and cheer. Luvixx gasped for air and began waving a pair of arms in negation. "No, my friend, that is not a good idea. That is a brilliant idea! Quickly, gather every prey-stalker that we have and spread the word that every engineer should report to me. Let's find out if this will work!"

Feeling enormously pleased with himself, Hunk hopped back into the speeder to put it away. Once he was at the Lion, he dug around for the toolkit that he had spotted near the locker where he kept his uniform. As he searched, a faint voice sounded, one without that odd rasp that seemed to be a Metrean trait.

His Lion, who had been a quiet and content presence in the back of his mind for the last couple of days, suddenly gave him a mental push. He opened the locker to discover the princess' voice coming from his helmet.

"Voltron team, this is Allura! Please respond! Can you hear me? Anyone? Please answer me!"

"There you guys are!" Hunk's spirits, already energized by the cloaking shield for the Metreans, shot up into the stratosphere.

* * *

After the medtechs set up a saline drip, they added the amotrazephine. The female medtech informed Darzi that they would need about ten minutes for it to take effect. As the general left, she began placing electrodes on Keith's temples and forehead. They produced a rapid beeping somewhere nearby.

Keith waited, hating the vague chill in his veins caused by the saline. His mind raced with possibilities from sweet-talking the techs into undoing the straps to lying through his teeth until Darzi was satisfied and put him in that comfortable room he mentioned. As the minutes stretched out and he didn't feel much difference other than the slightest bit of drowsiness, he sensed Red's anger with the need to do something.

 _No, Red. If you move to break into this building, they'll try and stop you. You might be forced to hurt them, and most of them don't deserve that. One way or another, I'll get to you._

Darzi returned and looked at the medtechs. The woman held up her hands in puzzlement. "He's not ready. There are no indications in his vital signs that the amotrazephine has taken effect. His brain function is still going strong and his respiration and heartbeat are still elevated."

 _Huh. Wonder if it's like the tranks? And if I can resist, how do I convince them it's working?_

"Then up the dose!"

As the woman argued about the side effects of the drug, Keith concentrated on making his breathing slow and steady. As he forced himself to relax, he could hear the beeping slow a little. He focused on the beep, on making it slow down bit by bit. Red seemed to realize what he was doing and sent a soothing purr over their connection. The beeping slowed further and the other medtech interrupted the argument.

"I think it finally worked. Vitals are approaching needed levels."

Darzi growled. "So it's like the tranquilizers. They work, eventually." He pulled up his stool and waited. When the medtech gave a signal, Darzi began.

"State your name and rank for the record, cadet"

He couldn't help himself sometimes. "Lance McClain, cargo pilot."

Both medtechs jumped forward, but were too slow. Darzi backhanded him and Keith tasted blood in his mouth. The beeping sped up and one medtech cursed.

Darzi straightened and tugged his cuffs back to his wrists. "Up the dose. **Now.** No arguments."

* * *

 _Focus on the plan. Focus on the next step._

Allura forced her hands to unclench and rest on the controls, preparing to open the next wormhole. They had a plan. Collect Lance. Collect Pidge. Collect Hunk. Try to raise Keith again at every turn, though if distance were the issue they probably wouldn't have a hope of contacting him before arriving at Hunk's location.

But her instincts were screaming that it wasn't distance. Nothing in her experience, before or after her long cryo-sleep, suggested that the Castle-ship's communication system had less reach than her life force.

She didn't voice her fears. Shiro was sticking to his theory that it was only a matter of distance and Coran would check everything, mutter about getting the last of the Galra crystal's taint out of the systems, and tell her not to worry. Neither of them would take her misgivings seriously.

She concentrated again. Finally her hands were steady enough to direct a wormhole when a Lion was the destination, rather than star-map coordinates. It was deep in Galra territory, in an area that had been annexed before they turned their attention to Altea. Hopefully there would be no fleet patrolling that area. Hopefully it would be as simple as getting Shiro had been.

Hopefully.

 _Focus._

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

My hope is to get this finished before the new season drops on January 20. We'll see if I can make it.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. My Tumblr is currently quiet because time.

* * *

The medtechs convinced Darzi to leave while they monitored Keith's vital signs. The woman insisted they needed to verify that the second dose of amotrazephine was not going to be harmful.

As they hovered, Keith kept his eyes closed and focused on Red. The Lion's mental presence steadied him now, just as Keith had been the voice of reason earlier.

 _We can do this. They're not going to kill me—_

 ** _Not on purpose, Paladin._**

Keith was surprised at how much their interaction felt like a conversation.

 _They're not the Galra._

 ** _No, but they are afraid. That makes them just as dangerous._**

* * *

Shiro stood behind Allura, guarding her, even though logic said there was no threat to be found in the heart of the Castle of Lions. Logic couldn't defeat his emotions. No matter how he tried, he couldn't shake the fear of Sendak's insidious voice in his head, threatening to dive into the holes in his memories and reveal the atrocities he might have committed.

He watched as Allura planted her hands on the steering poles and opened a new wormhole. While they hadn't known each other more than a few weeks, Shiro could tell by the set of her jaw that she was afraid. But her hands were rock-steady as she guided the ship in. He admired her resilience. In the back of his head, the Black Lion purred approval.

He tried to think about the plan. Get Lance. Get Pidge. Get Hunk. Get Keith. But that led to fresh worries about Keith and the fact they couldn't contact him. He remembered the end of their battle with the Galra, how Zarkon was about to cleave the Red Lion in two as it sat there. If Keith, possibly the best pilot Shiro had ever met, could not get a response then the ship was hugely damaged, possibly beyond repair. Or Keith was injured so badly that he wasn't able to try.

Shiro focused on Coran's nav display, watching the pattern of blue and green dots nearby, forming a very long triangle with a yellow dot. The red dot was almost off the grid on the other side of the display.

 _Please be okay, Keith. We need you._

* * *

Pidge set out at sunrise, not knowing exactly how much time she had to work before the Castle-ship arrived. She flew the Lion to the crash site, slowing as the wreckage began showing up on the nav display, and this time went straight to the point of impact. As she neared, a few of the shapes in the yellow screen began showing a brighter glow.

"Aha! Power sources!"

Before she even moved a hand on the control panel, the Green Lion landed and began carefully using its paws to shift earth. It paused and Pidge heard that voice again.

 ** _Here_**.

Pidge exited the Lion and brought up the hand-held detector for more precision. She pulled up part of a monitor and noted the data storage component attached to it was cracked, but whole. She brought it over to her platform of scavenged bits and found her spare sentry hand.

That was step one. Step two was power. She painstakingly circled outward, chasing down every single bit of shrapnel that glowed. Finally, some twenty meters from her starting point, she found a power supply that could be rebuilt.

After nearly an hour's work, it was ready. The power source was connected to the sentry hand and operational. The hand was positioned over the access point to open the data drive. She engaged the power and pressed the hand down on the monitor surface for full contact.

Several seconds passed as the power source and the hand glowed purple. The data source sputtered and sparked. She shut the power off and picked up a magnifier and a soldering rod. Slowly and carefully, she began exploring the data source through the cracks in its casing, reattaching every broken connection she found.

It took long enough that the sun was close to overhead. She groaned as she straightened her hunched shoulders and took a few minutes to stretch before she tried again. This time the connection held.

"Yes!" She attached an Altean data container to the chain and watched in triumph as the information flowed. This time she would take everything, not just the reports of prisoners. Information was power, after all.

As the progress bar filled, she allowed herself to feel hope again. She would find her father and brother. She could feel it in her bones.

* * *

He drifted. Some part of his mind knew where he was and what was happening to him, but the greater part floated in a peaceful blue-gray twilight.

 _What is your name?_

The voice was distant, stretched and slow. "You know my name."

 _State your name for the record._

"You know it. You know who I was." He knew what the voice wanted, what the twilight was seeking from him. But he also felt a faint presence anchoring him, protecting the part of him that was unaffected.

 _Who are you now?_

"I am a Paladin."

 _What does that mean?_

"I fight the Galra Empire. I fight for freedom and justice."

 _How do you fight? You're just a kid!_

This voice was different, deeper and angrier. That tenuous thread to whatever was allowing him to keep his mind strengthened in response. Something growled and he sought the source of that strength.

 _Answer me! How do you fight?_

"I…fly. I've flown farther than anyone before me."

 _We know you fly! You're a pilot! How did you get that lion ship?_

The Lion. The Red Lion. He'd had to fight for its trust.

That growl in his mind again. Aimed at the voice, not him. It was his protector. He was its protector.

"We found each other."

 _Damn it, how is he still resisting? Up the dose!_

As the voices began arguing among themselves, he drifted slowly, following the thread connecting him to the other. The growls continued, calling to him, promising help and support. Promising that the others would come. He just had to stall a little longer.

 ** _Come to me, my Paladin._**

He retreated from the voices. He followed the thread as his surroundings slowly shifted to a red-gold warmth. He was safe here, at least for a while.

* * *

"What do you mean, you can't wake him?" Darzi screamed at the hapless medtechs. As the woman stepped forward to try and calm the general, the man pushed a button hidden under a counter.

"His brain function has slowed dangerously. **Probably** because the second dose of amotrazephine is now taking full effect." She made no effort to hide her scorn.

"Then do something! Give him a stimulant! We need answers from him!"

Another voice cut across Darzi's raving. "Lieutenant general, did I just hear you order yet another drug? To be administered to a young man who has already suffered multiple overdoses of tranquilizers and two rounds of a truth serum?"

"Iverson, you are not part of this inquiry!"

Iverson thrust an envelope at him. "At this point, neither are you. General Benítez has been assigned to take over and her first order is to leave Mr. Kogane in the medtechs' hands until the drugs in his system have a chance to clear."

Darzi ripped open the envelope, scanned the message inside and crumpled it, throwing it on the floor as he stalked out. "This is not over, Iverson!"

* * *

As they waited for the Castle-ship, the former slaves kept busy. Dr. Holt proved to be a master of organization and, instead of giving in to any feelings of being usurped, Lance watched and tried to learn something. Teams continued to strip the camp of everything usable and sort it all. Each team rotated from their given task to a nav display in the transport ship, identifying each member's home system and its status so they could determine where to go next. Then each member conferred with Matt Holt, who had shown a similar flair for tech as his sister and hacked into the records to help find missing family and friends. Each time one of the former slaves left with shoulders slumped in defeat or in tears, Lance's spirits sank a little more.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to find Dr. Holt next to him. "First time seeing the aftermath?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah. At the garrison I had just gotten into fighter class when Shiro returned. Until now it's been a bullet train…we haven't had any time to stop and think, really."

"And now you do." The older man patted his shoulder. "We have a little while…tell me more about what Katie's been up to?"

Lance grinned at that. "Well, I was injured and out cold for most of this, but the others filled me in. Shiro and I were captured by a few Galra that had crash-landed on Arus, and Keith and Allura couldn't get into the castle because they'd raised a force field. So Pidge was the only one left who could do anything. She kept them busy, sabotaging systems so the ship couldn't take off, even taking down one of the Galra! And she's the one who took out Sendak's weaponized arm! She…she's great."

"That she is, Lance. She—"

Whatever Dr. Holt was about to say was lost as a wormhole opened up in the sky above them. Lance punched the air. "They're here! They made it!"

The enormous ship landed a safe distance from the camp. A small vehicle emerged almost immediately and shot toward them, skimming above the ground.

* * *

Allura let Shiro go first as they exited the speeder. She was aware of his agonizing need to do something, to reunite the team under his leadership, to regain the status quo. She waited as Lance ran up and the two Paladins pounded one another on the back briefly. Then Lance moved to her and swept her up, spinning them in place with a joyous whoop. When he showed no signs of stopping until they were both too dizzy to stand, she spoke.

"It's good to see you, too, Lance! Now put me down!"

To her surprise, Lance did and steadied them both against the speeder as he turned to Shiro. "You'll never guess who's here! Come on!"

Shiro threw one puzzled glance at Allura, but went after Lance. She shook her head to clear the last of the dizziness and followed them.

They started back to where a large group of beings were organizing goods and equipment. About halfway there, a voice rose from the general murmurs. "Shiro?"

Shiro jumped as if stung, then shouted back, "Matt! Matt Holt!" As Allura watched, he ran toward a young man who was limping slightly. A young man that looked startlingly like Pidge.

"Oh, my…" she breathed. As Shiro and Matt Holt threw their arms around one another, she noticed an older Earthling suddenly paying attention. Lance waved at him.

"Doctor! Doctor Holt! They're here!"

Shiro's head snapped up and he looked at Matt. "You found your dad!"

"Yeah, and Lance has been telling us about Katie! Still can't believe my sister is a pilot!"

As Doctor Holt joined the group and greeted Shiro, Lance pulled Matt over to her. "Matt Holt, this is the Princess Allura. Allura, this is Pidge's brother, Matt."

As the younger Holt seemed uncertain how to greet an intergalactic princess, she held out a hand as she had seen the Paladins do. "It's an honor to meet you."

He shook her hand. "Same, your highness." Voices rose nearby and Matt looked over. "Oh, I better get over there."

As he left, Allura looked at Lance. "All right, Blue Paladin. Report, please?"

"This was a slave camp. I was able to take out a transport ship mostly unharmed and neutralize the sentries. There are four Galra, two from the ship and two who were in charge of the sentries. They're all locked in one of the holding cells in the camp, being guarded by a few Jocrai while we sort all this."

She nodded and he continued, "So far, Matt's found that probably a quarter of the people here can safely go home. The rest, I'm not sure."

Allura thought for a moment. "Our next stop is Arus to retrieve Pidge. Perhaps we should take the survivors there. They can help the Arusians rebuild their village, then sort out whether to stay there or move to a safer place. I believe our largest cargo bay is big enough to hold the transport ship. We can use the pods to move the salvage you've collected. Coran?"

"Yes, Princess?"

"Could you open all hangars and the main cargo bay? We're about to take on a large number of passengers."

* * *

It took over an hour, but the Metreans gathered every last prey-stalker in the fledgling colony. The grand total was sixty-seven. Hunk and an engineer named Varixian worked with a pair of the devices while more were being gathered and discovered that Hunk's theory would work. They quickly showed a number of other Metreans how to alter the devices and then threw themselves into mapping where the prey-stalkers would go.

Now Hunk and Varixian were making a circuit of the perimeter in his speeder, pausing every fifty meters or so to set up another prey-stalker. A few Metreans working very fast had been able to mount each device on a sharpened metal stake. Hunk would hammer an empty stake into the earth, then pull it out. Varixian would shove a stake with a prey-stalker in the resulting hole.

Drive, pause, hammer, yank, set. Drive, pause, hammer yank, set. They worked grimly, racing a clock when they didn't know the deadline.

They were more than three-quarters of the way around when Hunk felt a warning from the Yellow Lion. "Uh-oh."

Varixian looked over at him. "Problem?"

"Yeah, my Lion says that three Galra warships have entered this solar system. Tell the camp to prepare for total shutdown. We have to get the last of these things in place!"

Varixian opened a comm-link and passed the word. All the non-combatants were to gather in the center of the planned web, in a compact camp near the Yellow Lion. All power sources were to be cut to the minimum and all noise prevented. Hunk and Varixian were to continue placing the prey-stalkers until either the perimeter was completed or the got the signal from Luvixx to run for the camp.

Drive, pause, hammer, yank, set. Drive, pause, hammer yank, set…

Just as Hunk was driving the final stake into the ground, Varixian waved at him. He wrenched the stake out and Varixian drove the last prey-stalker in. "Let's go! Luvixx just contacted me that the Galra are closing in!"

They jumped into the speeder and Varixian began flipping levers on the makeshift control panel for activating the net. Hunk opened the throttle to its maximum to reach camp in time. As they skimmed the grassy plain, Hunk sent up a prayer.

 _Please let this work, please let this work, please let this work…_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team. The very cliff-hangery heart-stopping sandbox.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I've also gotten sucked back into Tumblr, and my dash could use more Voltron!

So, yeah. Didn't make that hoped-for deadline. So my story is now officially S2 AU. I did go back and edit parts of the previous chapters, because (bone-headed me) I forgot completely about Shiro's wound from Haggar. That's fixed. I also know what my endgame is, but I need to finish getting there. Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

* * *

Even with the excellent organizational skills of Dr. Holt, it still took hours to finish stripping the slave camp and load everything into the Castle-ship. Then there was the question of what to do about the Galra. Allura found herself in the middle of a heated debate. A few of the aliens from peaceful societies wanted to take the Galra to the nearest hub and drop them off. The majority, led by the Jocrai, wanted to kill them in increasingly painful ways.

Allura was torn. She wasn't sure she wanted to kill needlessly, even if they were Galra, but taking the officers with them meant the quick spread of information to the enemy. She didn't want any chance of Zarkon learning that the Lions and Paladins were separated once more.

Matt Holt had been off to the side, tinkering with something, As Allura tried once more to calm the situation, she saw him run to Shiro. After listening to what he had to say, Shiro climbed on top of his speeder, stuck two fingers of his left hand in his mouth, and produced an ear-splitting whistle. Everyone turned to him in surprise.

"We have a third option. Matt says he can rig a distress signal for the Galra officers, timed to go off in up to thirty-six hours. Given where we are, it's likely that a ship will respond and be here in less than a day after that. They can survive that long easily in the isolation cells with a few supplies. And we'll be long gone."

Most of the crowd seemed pleased with that possibility and Allura let out a sigh of relief. After a short bit of discussion, the only ones not happy with the compromise were the Jocrai, but they recognized that they were outnumbered. With the decision made, they finished loading the last of the supplies and prepared the passengers for departure.

* * *

Hunk could think of quite a few times in his life that he had been afraid. He would be the first to admit that he wasn't the bravest person around. But he felt pretty certain that even Lance "I can conquer all the challenges before me" McClain would be rather uneasy in this situation.

It was hard to believe that they couldn't be seen. The shield created by the net of prey-stalkers only worked in one direction, of course. A hunter would want to mask their own presence, but still be able to see the target. As Hunk looked up in the morning sun, watching the spiky silhouettes of Galra drones zip across the sky, he wanted to find a hole and crawl in deep.

His Lion radiated comfort in the background, humming at minimal power. All non-essential members of the Metrean colony were hiding under shelters, encouraged not to look, while the security forces and engineers monitored the situation.

 ** _They come, Paladin._**

Hunk jumped at that voice inside his head, then turned to Luvixx. "Spread the word. We'll have visual on the warships in a few minutes."

Luvixx activated the stealth-comms, message transmitters that worked through earphone-like instruments, and whispered, "Total silence. Begin total silence."

Three miniature suns appeared above the horizon, growing larger and brighter as the warships entered the planet's atmosphere, until they were past. The familiar silhouettes took shape, inky black slashes against the sky. Hunk sensed a stirring among the Metreans not hiding in the shelters as they saw the threat, but the silence held.

Slowly, far too slowly, the Galra ships split up and began searching the planet's surface. Hunk watched with narrowed eyes and his heart in his throat as the shadow of the nearest warship crawled closer to them.

As the ship drew nearer, Hunk slid over to the Yellow Lion. It was lying flat, rather like a Sphinx but with the head down as well. He took up position near its mouth, just in case.

* * *

Pidge finished downloading all the information from the crashed warship close to sunset. While she waited, she continued to sift through the wreckage for potential reverse-engineering projects. By the time she was ready to head back to the village, she had enough salvage to keep her busy for days.

One of the projects that had sprung to mind was bothering her, though. As she drove the speeder back in the twilight, she began talking it out to herself.

"All right, I have what I need to make some kind of glove that will let us access Galra tech. I may have a way to tap into their communications from a distance. I might be able to replicate their ion cannons and I can definitely reverse-engineer their rifles. But we don't really need the rifles on the ship, we have plenty of defenses already. Do I leave the rifles with the Arusians?"

She thought hard about that. The Arusians were a very simple society, about as low-tech as one could get, and it had served them well for probably centuries. Yet they had been exposed to tech, both good and bad, through the Voltron team and the Galra. How much bigger of a leap was it to put advanced weaponry into their hands? It wasn't as if anyone would stop them from investigating the Galra wreckage themselves eventually.

"I don't know. I don't know what to do." As she neared the village, she saw that they had made significant progress in clearing the village of debris, thanks to the drones.

"I'll work on the gloves first. Maybe Allura will know what to do when they get here."

* * *

The shadow of the Galra ship slipped smoothly over them, not hesitating once. It eclipsed the sun, creating a horrific demonic shape against the light, and darkened the sky. Hunk was relieved that the majority of the Metreans couldn't see what was happening—it was difficult enough for the security guards to hold their silence in the face of this menace.

As the warship continued to track its search path, Hunk felt the muscles in his shoulders unclench. The plan was working. The prey-stalkers were masking their presence. Maybe, just once, they wouldn't have to fight a battle.

* * *

Keith opened his eyes to find the room dimmed, suggesting that it was late at night. He was still strapped down. He could feel the electrodes on his skin and hear the steady blip of the monitors. He risked a look around.

The room was empty except for himself.

 _That's not right. Darzi would have stationed someone to watch me._

He reached out to his Lion with a thought.

 _Red?_

 ** _You have returned to yourself. Your body is stabilized._**

 _Yeah, I guess so. Do you know what's happening?_

 ** _The others are gathering again, but slowly. Without your helmet, you cannot contact them. Without you here, I cannot contact them. They will find us, eventually._**

 _That's something, I guess._ Keith looked around again and saw his helmet and armor piled on a table across the room. He lifted his head as high as he could manage—

And froze at the sight of one of the medtechs on the floor near the door. Coffee from a dropped cup had left dark splashes over her white coat.

As Keith's heart rate shot up, an alarm from the monitors sang out.

The doors slid open, revealing Darzi and an unfamiliar medtech. Darzi grinned at him and Keith felt a terror he had never known, even when a galactic emperor had prepared his death strike. This man was dangerously obsessed.

"Now we can talk, Kogane. Just you and me and the right balance of amotrazephine and adrenaline."

Keith clenched his fists and braced his elbows against the gurney, trying with everything he had to move. "Guard! Hey, somebody! I need help!"

Darzi moved next to him and brought both hands down on Keith's face, blocking his nose and mouth. "Now, now. None of that. Just give Perkins here a minute to set up the drip and everything will be all right."

Keith thrashed desperately, trying to free himself, but Darzi increased the pressure. As a rushing sound grew in his ears and his vision dimmed, Keith could feel the building shake as Red roared her rage.

 _Can't…breathe…_

"Sir, let go!" The medtech grabbed the general's arm.

Darzi seemed to snap out of it and shifted, but kept one hand clamped over Keith's mouth. "Do it now!"

 ** _Paladin! Come!_**

Keith didn't wait for the needle to bite his arm again. With a mental leap he dove into Red's waiting aura.

* * *

Tensions were beginning to run uncontrollably high in the camp. The warship that had crossed their location was long gone over the horizon. But there had been no all-clear from his Lion, and without that, Hunk refused to break silence.

Thus the voice, when it cried out, was all the louder. "Oh, no!"

Hunk joined a half-dozen Metreans in waving arms at the offender. But the engineer ignored them. "One of the prey-stalkers shorted out! The shield is down!"

"Quiznak!"

The Yellow Lion immediately opened her mouth and Hunk raced up the ramp to the cockpit. They sat up and began scanning. Hunk opened his communications controls and Yellow immediately connected him to the Metrean stealth-comms.

"My scanners show the ships are all scanning the other side of the planet. I'm going to try and draw them away! Get everyone into the transports – it's the only real shelter you all have!"

Luvixx replied, "Yes, Paladin. May your gods protect you."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team. The very cliff-hangery heart-stopping sandbox.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I've also gotten sucked back into Tumblr, and my dash could use more Voltron!

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

* * *

Darzi practically danced with rage as the monitors' rhythm slowed noticeably.

"Not again! Did you give him the adrenaline yet? Add more!"

Perkins looked at the monitors, evaluating the information they provided. He then took a long look at the youth on the gurney. Bruises were already starting to form on his face, making the wound from a previous split lip even darker. Perkins reached over and opened one of the boy's eyes. The eye, an unusual dark violet color, was badly bloodshot from the strain of fighting for air.

"Do you realize how close you came to killing him?"

"All I did was stop him from making noise! Wake him now! Add more adrenaline!"

Perkins took another look around, this time focusing on his colleague sprawled on the floor, unconscious from a drugged cup of coffee. "I haven't started the amotrazephine yet."

"What? But his vitals slowed, just like before!"

Perkins shook his head. "That reaction didn't happen until the second dose, according to the report I read. There's something else going on here, like he's found a way to withdraw physically and mentally from the situation. I've read about catatonia, but I've never witnessed a case personally and I've never heard of anyone being able to control it like this."

"Well, then, use the adrenaline first! Or another stimulant! Or get the defibrillator and run some volts through him!"

Perkins moved to stand between Darzi and the boy. "Sir, you are out of control. I understand that you want answers, but you are overstepping a line here."

"Now you listen here—"

"No, **you** listen." Perkins used his height advantage to advance and tower over the older man. "I will summon backup from security guards who aren't in your squad and press for a tribunal in which I will testify unless you back off **now**."

Darzi opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by the floor trembling under his feet. A growl thundered, echoing through the entire building. Perkins swallowed uneasily, but held his ground. "Seems like someone agrees with me. Now, you get those two guards of yours to carry Desai to her quarters. I am going to do a full blood workup and cellular scan for Mr. Kogane, which should have been done in the first place. I will stay with him until he returns. You will stay the hell away from him and I will share any information I am able to obtain."

"But—"

"Lieutenant General, you are being handed the perfect bad-cop-good-cop opportunity here, not to mention the chance to hide how close you came to murdering a defenseless civilian. I suggest you use them."

Darzi gulped and backed out of the room.

Once he was alone, Perkins pulled out his personal mobile and sent a quick text: YOUR SUSPICIONS CORRECT. SUBJECT NEARLY LOST. PROBLEM HEADED OFF FOR NOW.

* * *

On approach to the far side of the planet, Hunk racked his brain furiously for ideas. Shiro and Keith were the best combat strategists of the team. Pidge was the tech-head and Lance just tried whatever came into his head, which worked more often than it should. Hunk was the nuts-and-bolts guy, the one who could build it. Everything he knew from flight combat training at the Garrison involved teams working together. And right now he was very much alone.

He felt a growl in his head.

 _Okay, not alone, exactly. But severely lacking in the support personnel department._

That earned him a purr that was almost a chuckle.

The display showed one warship near the southern pole of New Metrea, as Hunk sometimes called it in his head, while the other two were much farther north. After a brief debate, he decided to spend his coin of surprise on the two ships together. If he were very lucky, he might be able to disable the ion cannon on one of the ships with his first strike. And it was much better if any immediate reinforcements consisted of one ship rather than two.

 _We have got to get those cloaking devices of Pidge's on the rest of the Lions._

 ** _Agreed._**

As they cleared the horizon, Hunk brought up the Lion's jaw blades and put on as much speed as possible. The Galra clearly were not expecting any problems and their weapons did not start firing until he was well within visual range. Flying straight and true, they went for the ion cannon of the near ship, scoring into its side up the entire length.

The ion cannon exploded behind them. Hunk whooped and banked, trying for the same strategy on the other ship. But someone on that ship had quicker reflexes and the Yellow Lion bounced off a particle barrier.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate **quiznaking FORCE FIELDS?** " Hunk's voice rose in frustration.

Both warships had launched fighters and now Hunk had to concentrate on staying out of the way and letting as few energy bolts hit him as possible. He tried to imitate some of the evasive tactics he had seen Shiro and Keith use, but the Yellow Lion was just too slow for some of the pinpoint maneuvers. After a lot of shoving fighters into each other, he found some success in flying between the warships, causing havoc when the attacks started taking each other out in 'friendly fire'. The close quarters made it easier to drive fighters into the hull of a warship and the numbers started going down steadily.

 ** _Beware! The other ship is on the way!_**

He was distracted just enough as he tried to think of a way to compensate for the new aggression that he slowed momentum. And those damnably clever Galra took the opportunity and moved closer to one another, catching Yellow and pinning him between them. Hunk felt the Lion shudder as they closed in.

"NO! Come on, work loose!" Hunk pulled the steering poles, trying to break the pincer hold, but the only response was an ominous groaning of metal. He opened the communications screen.

"Hunk to Voltron Team, I need help! Galra attack at my location!"

"We read you, Hunk! On our way!" Shiro's voice was the most beautiful thing Hunk had ever heard.

He braced himself in the cockpit as more metal creaked. "Come on, come on, come on, we can do this! I won't let you die this way!"

As he spoke, he felt a flood of warm, yellow-gold energy surge through him and something seemed to break through a barrier he hadn't known existed. A new strength filled him and he pushed with that strength.

And the Yellow Lion braced inside a new layer of heavy armor, massive claws slashing at the warships holding him in place.

"Oh, hell yes!"

* * *

 _He was safe here. Here there were no attacks, no questions, no probing. Here only held himself and his Other. She surrounded him with soft warmth, soothing and comforting him._

 ** _I have you, my Paladin. I can protect you for a little while._** _ **But you need to let me help you.**_

 _There was a reason…what was it? His Other could indeed protect his physical body as well as his true self, but there was a reason. She protected him, but he also protected her. What was he protecting her from?_

 ** _I can be careful, Paladin._**

 _That was it. Fear that if she caused unnecessary casualties that she would be captured and possibly destroyed. He had to prevent that._

 ** _I have to protect you, too._**

 _The enemy was afraid. Fear was a poor basis for making a rational decision. She had pointed that out herself. It made her unhappy that he was using her words against her, but she conceded the point._

 ** _Go back, my Paladin. I think you are safe for the moment._**

 _He trusted her. He trusted her more than any entity in the universe. But he still asked, because it was his nature to ask: Are you sure?_

 ** _Yes. You are safe for the moment, my cub._**

* * *

Allura stepped between the steering poles of the Castle-ship and began entering the coordinates for Arus. Part of her was almost giddy in anticipation of reuniting Pidge with her family. Another part of her was already planning arguments to leave the Holts there while they retrieved Hunk and Keith. Pidge's father was a master organizer and would be able to begin the process of either assisting former slaves home or helping them settle with the Arusians. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a communication screen popped up, showing a frantic Hunk.

"Hunk to Voltron Team, I need help! Galra attack at my location!"

"We read you, Hunk! On our way!" Shiro shot to his feet and moved to his elevator. "Lance, tell Dr. Holt to pass the word for everyone to stay in place and get to your Lion!"

"Copy!"

Allura quickly switched gears and focused her willpower on the Yellow Lion. Coordinates sprang up on the screen and her fingers dashed over the controls before moving to the steering poles. "Ready for wormhole!"

Coran set his controls. "Go!"

The Castle-ship dove through the ring into the inky purple void.

* * *

The warships had sprung apart enough with the appearance of the Yellow Lion's super-armor that they were free again. Hunk guided the front paws gleefully, the new enormous claws positively shredding the hull of the nearer ship.

"Oh, let's see what these can do to a force field!" They shot over to the ion cannon and swiped. A gratifying series of cracks appeared. Hunk shifted the controls and tried driving the outstretched claws into the field. The web of cracks widened and Hunk backed up and fired his lasers at the weak spot.

The force field popped like a soap bubble.

"Yeah! That was so much easier! Let's slice and dice this cannon!"

The Lion's claws penetrated and ripped, tearing the cannon loose from its base, and Hunk whooped with triumph.

 ** _PALADIN!_**

The blast from the newly-arrived _third_ ion cannon sent him spinning out of control.

* * *

The second they exited the wormhole, Allura brought the particle barrier up. Two Lions shot out of their hangars and made straight for the cluster of Galra ships.

"Hunk, where are you?"

"SSSHHHIIIIIRRRRROOOOOOOO!"

"There he is! He just crashed into the bridge of the near ship!"

"Good job, Lance! Let's see if we can run those two ships together. Princess, can you keep the third ship busy for just a few minutes?"

"On it!"

"Hunk, do you copy? We're going to try and ram the two ships together! Can you maneuver?"

"Yeah…yeah, we're okay!"

"Whoa, Hunk! What happened to your Lion? It's like, mecha-zoided!"

Hunk steered the Yellow Lion over toward Lance's side. "It's great, isn't it? It just kind of happened when I needed it most."

"Okay, you two! Push!"

With Black on one side and Blue and Yellow on the other, they gripped edges of the ship hulls with their teeth and fired thrusters. Slowly, the two ships ground together and explosions erupted all over them. As a particularly large firecloud erupted over the propulsion system of one ship and leapt to the other, Shiro disengaged.

"That's got those taken care of. Let's get the third!"

The three Lions flew to where the Castle-ship was in a standoff, slowly losing the protection of the particle barrier with repeated blasts from the Galra ion cannon. The strikes from the Castle-ship had done some damage, but not landed a crippling blow.

"Jawblades, everyone! Start with weapons systems and engines!"

It was a matter of minutes to disable the final ship. As Hunk relaxed, the heavy armor on the Yellow Lion winked out of existence and he patted the handles of his steering columns. "You really came through. Thanks."

* * *

Back at the village, Pidge settled into the partially rebuilt hut that the Arusians had assigned her. She pulled off her helmet and outer layer of armor, debating whether she could borrow the Arusians' bathhouse before going to sleep and possibly find some spare clothing and try to clean her under-armor. Someone had left a plate of snacks for her and she was touched to see that whoever it was had paid attention and assembled her favorite examples of Arusian cuisine.

She began pulling out some of the equipment she would need to start the Galra glove project. She set her repaired power source out and dug around for a solar cell she had spotted before. She jury-rigged a connection and quickly verified that the setup was compatible. Now she would be able to keep the Galra power source charged as she worked on other things. She pulled out a disembodied sentry hand and began dismantling it.

In her concentration, Pidge completely missed that there were voices coming from her helmet on the other side of the room. She felt a nudge in her head. "Huh? What is it, girl? Is something happening?"

She retrieved her helmet and put it on. She blinked in surprise at hearing Shiro direct Lance and Hunk in mopping up some stray fighters. "Wait, what happened?"

Allura replied, "Hunk ran into some Galra warships and we had to go help him. Is everything all right with you?"

"Yeah, no problems at all."

"Good. I think we're going to have to arrange for these refugees to go elsewhere. We have to assume someone reported their presence."

"It's okay. I've got plenty here to keep me busy." _And the longer you take to get here is more time I can use to go through the prisoner database._

"Thank you, Pidge. Allura out."

Pidge removed the helmet and frowned. Surely there was a better way to maintain communication between them than wearing the helmets all the time? Allura used those earrings of hers, but Pidge expected at least one of the boys would object to that.

 _Maybe an earpiece analog? But if it's something we wear all the time, we'd have to find a way to make it detect when we have our helmets on so we don't get double audio when we wear them. Maybe a wrist mount would be better._

She felt the Green Lion's curiosity at the idea and smiled, mentally shuffling her project list.

* * *

Keith returned to himself and as was now habit, kept his eyes closed and body still while he listened and assessed. He was still immobilized. The room was quiet, but at least one person was shuffling around. While he waited, he heard glass clinking against metal and the sound of fingers on a keyboard.

Someone approached and Keith couldn't prevent himself from flinching when they made contact with his arm. A hand touched his forehead, smoothing his hair back.

"Easy, son. Everything's okay for the moment. Just putting this bandage in place. Drew a bit of blood to run an analysis, make sure there aren't any nasty alien bugs hiding in there."

Keith held rigid and still. He opened his eyes to see the medtech that had entered with Darzi and recoiled from him again. The man leaned over, examining his face.

"I'll get something for your eyes and that mark on your mouth. Can't really do anything for the bruising, but it'll fade in a few days. My name's Perkins, by the way. I'll be keeping an eye on you for a while."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team. The very cliff-hangery heart-stopping sandbox.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

I probably should have slept on this before posting, but we're getting so close to endgame…

* * *

Pidge woke early the next morning. She dragged a sturdy table out into the sunshine and set the solar cell and power source there to charge. The Altean drive with all the downloaded information drew power from an Altean source she had found in the Green Lion and she began sifting through the information it contained. Hopefully today she would find definitive information on the whereabouts of her father and brother.

Around her, the Arusian village began stirring. Pidge looked up for a moment, taking in the villagers as they started their day. She spared one happy glance at the Galra power source as purple light brightened and dimmed within.

* * *

A steel-gray sentry monitored signals at a tiny station far to the side of a bridge. One signal caught its attention—it was out of normal parameters. The sentry performed according to its programming and sent the information to the scouting drones near that sector. The drones would continue on their routes but pay close attention when they passed the planet in question.

The sentry flagged the planet's name—Arus—and continued to monitor.

* * *

He did not trust them. This man had come in with Darzi and had waited almost too late to intervene when he was attacked. Just because he was being aw-shucks friendly did not change the fact that he did not remove Keith's bonds. All the 'sons' in the galaxy would not balance that.

Keith refused to speak and avoided meeting Perkins' eyes while he puttered around. He left at one point and Keith made a futile effort to work his way free of the straps.

Perkins returned with a tray and set it down. He selected a small bottle and leaned over Keith. "I'm going to put some drops in your eyes to help soothe them. You have a lot of burst blood vessels in them from trying to get air when Darzi was smothering you."

Keith's eyes widened involuntarily at that. The last thing he expected was someone to admit that Darzi had tried to kill him.

Perkins blinked, startled at something. "Look at me, please."

Keith did and Perkins looked closely for a moment. Then he picked up an instrument. A bright light shone in Keith's eyes and he realized the man was looking through a scope to examine them. After several uncomfortable minutes, the light vanished and Keith squeezed his watering eyes shut.

"You, son, are a very fast healer. Your eyes were full of blood not two hours ago and now they look perfect. That shouldn't happen for over a week." He put one hand on Keith's chin and shone the light on his skin. "Bruising's almost completely gone. Anything happen to you recently to explain this? Did the aliens who made those flying lions inject you with something?"

 _Liters of warm liquid splashing over him as the container behind him broke. His hand, nearly crippled by burns, straightening and healing before his eyes._

Keith shook his head.

* * *

Hunk led the others back to the Metreans' camp. "Luvixx, pass the word. The Galra have been taken care of for now and I have reinforcements for us."

"That is outstanding news, Hunk! Thank you!"

"We have two more Voltron Lions and a support ship. We'll land on the north side, outside the perimeter."

"Acknowledged. We'll meet you there."

They were already within visual range and Hunk led everyone to his chosen landing area. The Lions touched down and the Paladins exited.

As they waited for the Castle-ship to land, Shiro moved over to Hunk. "I just wanted to say, well done. You did an excellent job here."

Hunk felt his face grow hot, hearing their leader's praise. "Thanks, Shiro, but I just did what had to be done."

"You supported these people, protected them. It sounds like you held them together and kept them from panicking. Don't be so modest."

"Yeah, Hunk. If you've got it, flaunt it!" Lance looked at the group of people just coming into view. "So, any pretty ladies around? Does Shay have competition?"

Hunk raised an eyebrow. "Use the magnification in your visor."

Lance grimaced in concentration, jumped slightly when the view shifted, and looked. The resulting "EEEEEEEEE!" had Hunk wishing for a camera for blackmail material. It looked like Lance might be afraid of spiders and he would _hate_ having Keith see his reaction.

Shiro zoomed in for a look as well and nodded.

"Seen them before?" Hunk raised an arm and waved as the Metreans drew closer.

"Possibly. They look a bit familiar."

A pod emerged from the landed ship and sped over to them. It paused beside them and Allura hopped out. "Lance, would you please go help Coran and Dr. Holt? We need to keep the former slaves patient and you're the familiar face. I need to convince the Metreans of my plan so we can be on our way to Arus as soon as possible."

"Plan? What plan?" Hunk looked from one to the other as Lance leaped into the pod and raced away.

Allura talked as they moved to meet the Metreans. "Obviously they can't stay here. We must assume that the Galra had time to report at least an attack by the Yellow Lion, if not the presence of the colony. I'm going to suggest they follow us via wormhole to Arus. According to what the Arusians told Pidge, the Galra have shown no interest in their planet since we left. There are plentiful resources for the Arusians, the rescued slaves, and the Metreans."

Hunk pondered that for a moment. "The biggest objection they might have is that Arus is really far away. There might be more survivors who haven't made it here yet."

Allura's face fell, showing her desperation to move as quickly as possible to reunite all the paladins. Shiro thought for a moment, then turned to her. "Princess, do you think we can use the Castle to boost communications and locate any other Metreans? If we can get their locations, we can coordinate rendezvous points and help get more of them to Arus on our way there, or help them after we get Pidge and Keith."

Allura beamed at that. "That's a perfect suggestion!"

Hunk grinned and ran ahead to Luvixx and his entourage. "Hey, we have more good news!"

* * *

Once the power source showed a steady purple light, Pidge disconnected it from the solar cell and brought it inside. She continued to sift through the database, flagging every bit of information that she saw as potentially useful and color-coding it toward offensive strikes, guerrilla tactics, and large concentrations of prisoners.

"Hello! What is it?"

"Breakfast?"

Pidge had been too busy working to realize the passing time, but now her stomach growled loudly. The little Arusian's eyes grew big at that and Pidge laughed. "Yeah, I guess I should eat. What's your name, by the way? I'm Pidge."

"Sofee."

"Hi, Sofee. Thanks for coming. Where do I go to get some food?"

Sofee led her to one of the two larger buildings in the village. One was a communal kitchen and the other a bathhouse. Both were designed for the generally warm climate so there was less need for fires everywhere creating excess heat. She watched as Pidge grabbed a wooden plate and helped herself to some fresh fruit and roasted roots. Pidge noticed the little alien looking longingly at some bunches of yellow berries and grabbed a couple of handfuls.

They returned to Pidge's hut and she fished a disembodied sentry head out of the salvage pile to poke at while she ate. "So, I'm looking to see if I can adapt the communications technology in this sentry into some kind of link that we can use to talk to each other when we're not wearing our helmets or in the castle. I might even be able to rig it so we can listen in on Galra chatter! Can you imagine the tactical advantage we'd have then?"

Sofee watched her with wide eyes. Pidge slid the plate of food toward her. "I think I got too much food. Want something?"

Sofee's eyes lit up and she snatched the yellow berries eagerly.

* * *

They sat around the conference room, waiting. Most were men but a few women were in the mix. Some read tablets while others shuffled paper. Two of them, a Garrison commander and a lieutenant general, kept glaring at one another across the table.

Finally, two more people entered and everyone stood. The military saluted as General Benítez entered, a man in a white lab coat behind her.

"Perkins!" Darzi burst out, turning red with anger. "What are you doing here? You said you wouldn't report on it!"

Perkins sighed in resignation as Benítez fastened her gaze on first Darzi, then Perkins.

"Lieutenant General, you will be explaining that statement to me immediately after this briefing. In the meantime, sit down, everyone."

Once everyone was situated, she sent handfuls of printouts down each side of the table. "Everyone take one. These papers will be gathered and destroyed immediately after this meeting. Is that understood?" At the chorus of affirmative responses, she continued.

"So far we have had a battle of jurisdiction over former Galaxy Garrison cadet Keith Kogane. On the one hand he is from the Garrison and reported there willingly after he crashed in an alien ship at Mount Rushmore. On the other hand, Earthforce is the body to assess threats on an interstellar level. I will state that I am _not_ pleased at how this has been handled so far. Iverson should have been given the chance to talk to Kogane before any aggressive action was taken and the leap to trying to force information from him happened much too soon.

"However, we have new information that absolutely requires Earthforce involvement as well as the executive branch and almost certainly a number of civilians from the scientific community. Please look at the results of a blood test that should have been done immediately instead of nearly two days later."

Eyes looked down and read. Some faces showed confusion while others reacted in shock.

Iverson was the first to break silence. "How is this possible? He was part of the Garrison for two years. He had to have a physical as part of joining up. Why wasn't this spotted then?"

"It explains everything," Darzi growled. "The resistance to the drugs, the mental control, the enhanced physical skills—"

"Oh, no. You don't get to blame all of it on this test." A blond man in the uniform of a Garrison faculty member spoke up. "Kogane was always a stellar hand-to-hand fighter. Especially with that knife he kept around."

Benítez took the reins of the conversation again. "So, it's quite possible that the test results indicate something that happened to him since his disappearance."

"I asked," Perkins interrupted. "He had…injuries that healed within hours when they should have taken days. All he did was shake his head 'no' when I asked if anyone had injected him with something while he was out in space."

Iverson fixed his good eye on Darzi, even though he addressed Perkins. "Wait, what injuries? He was in perfect health when he stepped out of that ship, I'll swear to it!"

Darzi paled under Iverson's glare and Benítez' suspicious glance. She leaned forward. "Enough! Now, this is the plan going forward. Mr. Kogane will remain under sedation while we get the best experts in theoretical xenobiology here. Then we will repeat the blood test and add a cellular analysis. Armed with that information, we will invite Mr. Kogane to give us a little more information. _Kindly and gently and politely._ For all we know, this was something that was done to him and he could be as much a victim as anyone. His records show that our social systems and the Garrison failed him, badly. I refuse to do so again."

* * *

Tovak sifted through the reports from the monitoring sentries in their fleet, scanning screen after screen of boring reports.

 _Nothing, nothing, nothing, noth—_

He paused. One of the sentries had flagged a signal, the pulse of a Galra power source coming from an area of space that the Galra had no interest in now. Commander Prorok had ordered the pullback after Commander Sendak's disappearance. The last known reports had described a completely destroyed warship and a defeated beast of the Komar.

But if someone on that planet was repairing or repurposing Galra tech…that must not be allowed. A lesson must be taught.

Tovak put the information on a chip and went to find his commander.

* * *

Hunk, Allura, and Shiro sat down with the Metrean Representors. Allura immediately began speaking. "Your Excellences, I believe you all are in danger if you stay here. We must assume that the Galra communicated the attack from the Yellow Lion the moment it happened. They are certain to come and investigate more thoroughly. I would like to offer you passage with us to a planet called Arus. There are inhabitants already there, but they are peaceful and the resources are plentiful. We can use the Altean wormholes to have all of your transports there within hours. I also offer the Castle's resources in trying to locate any other refugees from your world and assisting them in joining you as soon as we have reunited the Voltron Force."

The Metreans looked at one another, afraid to believe that such offers could be true. Luvixx turned to Hunk. "Honored Paladin, is this all possible?"

Allura drew breath to object to this questioning of her word, but Shiro reached over and put a hand on her knee. She frowned at him, but bit back her words.

Hunk didn't notice. "Yes, Luvixx, it's all possible. Your transports can fly through the wormhole right behind the Castle. And Arus is a nice place, a bit more mountain-y than here, but if we scout we can probably find just the place for your people to settle. And once we have Pidge back on board, she can do all sorts of things to isolate your communication channels and boost them so we can find more of your people."

"And you will help bring any other Metreans to us?" Now Luvixx addressed Allura.

"Yes. As soon as we have our missing Paladins back we will return to this sector and scout for any other Metrean survivors. I recommend leaving some kind of message here for any who find their way here, but not giving your destination in case the Galra find it first."

Luvixx looked around at the other Representors, all of whom raised their middle left arms in a sign of agreement. "We accept your offer with full gratitude."

"How soon can you all be ready to move?" Allura got to her feet, ready to sprint to the Castle.

"We should be ready by the time the sun sets."

Shiro looked to Hunk, who checked the sky. "That's probably about seven hours."

Allura glanced back at the Castle. "We have a number of people who could assist you?"

Luvixx looked back to Hunk, who looked puzzled. Shiro explained, "Lance found a slave camp and took out the Galra who were running it. We're relocating the ones who can't return home on Arus as well."

"Ah. Well, Princess, I think the Metreans have everything under control. Let's let them get started."

As the three of them walked away, Allura turned on Shiro. "Why did you stop me? He should have addressed me as the leader and a royal personage!"

"In a formal situation, I might agree with you. But these people clearly look to Hunk as a hero figure and trust him a lot. Letting him back what you said was much faster than mucking through protocol and negotiations."

Allura thought about that for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. "You're right. I'm sorry I snapped at you." She turned to Hunk and in a much calmer tone, asked, "And not using the former slaves to speed things up?"

"Well, from what I understand the Metreans were fully aware of interstellar travel, but happy enough to stay in one place until the Galra came. I wasn't sure that having a bunch of aliens all over their camp would be a good thing. I get the feeling that they trust me in spite of me being different from them."

"I see. I do wish we could get them to move faster."

"Still no word from Keith?"

"No."

Shiro laid his hand on her shoulder. "Keith can handle himself."

Allura spun around, her tension level back up. "Really? You were the one who wanted to get him next after we located you!"

Shiro's expression darkened at that and Allura locked eyes with him. They were almost to the Castle-ship and Lance came out to meet them. "We've managed, Allura. Coran's got them all going through the storage areas of the ship and cataloguing what's in there." When no one thanked him, Lance looked around. "What's the matter?"

Shiro replied, "We were discussing the fact that we haven't heard from Keith yet. I hate this. I hate that he's going to be the last one back, especially with Red nearly inoperable when we went into the wormhole that scattered us. Without communication, poor Keith's probably climbing the walls waiting for us."

Hunk snorted. "Poor Keith? You mean lucky Keith! He's back on Earth, seeing everyone, eating pizza and burgers and milkshakes—"

"What the quiznak are you talking about?" Lance's voice rose an octave. "Why are you assuming that Keith's okay? Remember how they reacted when Shiro crash-landed in an alien escape pod? They had him strapped down and unconscious and refused to listen to a word he said!"

Shiro looked up at that, blood draining from his face. "Oh, no."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team. The very cliff-hangery heart-stopping sandbox.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

By the way, I've started incorporating possibilities from the real season 2 of "Voltron" for potential future use in the sequel that is for now only a few ideas rattling around in my head. I make no promises on whether that sees the light of day.

* * *

As they waited for the Metreans to prepare for departure, the Paladins and Alteans gathered in the kitchens. Hunk brought a selection of fresh fruits and greens that he had discovered while exploring the riverbanks and worked with Coran to supplement the space goo into a more appetizing meal.

Lance was arguing with Shiro and Allura. "I don't understand! If we think there's a real chance of Keith being held by Earth's military, why aren't we going straight there? It's not like we need Voltron to bust him out!"

Allura shook her head. "My hope is to do this through diplomacy, but if it comes to a firefight, I want all our resources to hand. The Green Lion is still the only one outfitted with the cloaking device and we may need that capability."

"And Lance, think about it. You're the one who remembered how they treated me when I returned. What happened next? Four kids and a presumed-dead pilot vanished in an alien ship. What do you think the reaction will be if there are only three kids accounted for? We need Pidge's presence if we're going to present a unified front to them." Shiro restlessly drummed the fingers of his Galra hand on the table next to him, producing a steady clinking noise.

Lance opened his mouth to argue some more, but couldn't think of anything to add to his side. He glared at Shiro. "You're worried, though."

"Yes, I am. I'm a lot worried."

* * *

Lieutenant General Darzi stood to attention in front of General Benítez' desk. Perkins was off to the side. The general stacked the recollected papers that held the results of Kogane's blood tests and pushed them through a slit in the wall to the incinerator. She then turned and planted her hands on her hips. "Explain yourself."

Darzi wanted to swallow hard, but resisted. Calm was necessary. "As Perkins was preparing the new round of amotrazephine combined with adrenaline, Kogane began struggling and shouting. I only wanted to prevent him from hurting himself."

The general turned steely eyes to Perkins, who shifted his feet as he debated with himself. He looked up. "What I witnessed suggests that Darzi wanted to justify it by claiming he was preventing the boy from crying out or hurting himself, but he intended to incapacitate at the very least. He came damn close to killing him."

"And your evidence?"

"Only my word, ma'am. As I said in the meeting, the signs of suffocation were gone within a few hours. A normal person would have had bloodshot eyes and bruises for days after."

Benítez turned back to Darzi. "I am giving you one more chance to explain."

At that point, he knew he had lost. He might as well lay everything out. He picked up his tablet from where he had laid it on the desk and pulled up the relevant files. "This is Kogane from when he was a cadet, from a vid of a workout session made for training purposes. Do you see the knife in his hand?"

Benítez and Perkins looked closely. Benítez picked up her own tablet and searched briefly. "The inventory of his belongings included a knife. It was assumed to be part of that armor, because the lab techies can't identify the materials in the blade or the stone on the hilt." She looked up, worry lines creasing her forehead.

Perkins shook his head. "Anyone could have given it to him at any time."

"Maybe," Darzi replied. "But look at this." He pulled up another photo, showing the upper half of a humanoid robot. "This was in the ship that brought Takashi Shirogane back from wherever he was for a year. Look at the symbol on its chest. Now, look at the symbol on that knife." He handed the tablet to Perkins so the other two could compare the photos side by side.

Perkins shook his head again. "Now you're reaching. Yes, they could be the same alphabet, but they could just as easily be unrelated. You're determined to make that boy into some kind of alien threat and you don't have enough reason to."

"He won't answer our questions!"

"Maybe that's because you took him prisoner first!"

"Gentlemen, enough!" Benítez dropped both tablets on her desk. "Darzi, I will grant that Kogane having a knife of theoretically alien origin for years is an issue, but your reaction was still far over the line and made the situation much worse. I am removing you. You have forty-eight hours to clear out and report to Fort Bragg. You will stay there until a hearing is formed to investigate charges of wrongful imprisonment and assault."

"General!"

"Want me to add attempted murder? No? Then dismissed!"

Darzi's face darkened, but he grabbed his tablet, saluted, and backed out of the room.

Benítez turned to Perkins. "This fact about the knife is bad, Sam. I'm trusting you an awful lot."

He nodded. "I know you are, Mari. But we can't get answers from a dead body."

* * *

It was getting close to the midday meal in the village. Pidge continued to scan the prisoner files, knowing Sofee would come fetch her when it was actually time to eat. She paused for one moment to scrub her eyes, which were beginning to tire, and resumed.

 _Ears, gills, snout, ears again, scales…_ She zipped through photo files in rapid succession. _Horns, four eyes, ears AGAIN, how many times did they go after those people, jeez, mane, Shiro—_

 _Shiro!_

"Omigosh, omigosh…" Pidge stared at the picture of Shiro, his dark hair falling over his forehead and his terror-filled eyes staring out of an unmarked face.

With trembling fingers, she copied all the text from Shiro's file and set it as a search pattern. Her hope was to find cross-references in the Galra text that included either the date of Shiro's capture, the location, or the ship involved.

 _Please, please, please…_

A dozen files popped up. The top two showed her exactly what she had hoped for.

Pidge stared at the pictures of her father and Matt in disbelief for a moment, then squealed and hugged herself. "I found them! I found them!" She saved the two files to her gauntlet interface, then pulled Shiro's file up next to them and began studying them intently.

Green nudged her mind in a way that felt almost like an impatient poke.

"What, girl? What is it?"

 ** _My navigation database._**

"Oh? Oh! Yes!" Pidge scrambled out of the hut and ran for her Lion. Once in the pilot's seat, she shared the files to Green's databank. A star map, a miniature of the one from the Castle-ship, appeared and showed three locations.

The first location was the farthest away.

 ** _Your planet. Where they were found._**

The second location was deep within Galra territory.

 ** _Where they were all taken first._**

Pidge thought a moment. That must be near the Galra's central command, possibly close to the gladiator rings where Shiro spent far too many months fighting for his life.

The last location was still deep in Galra territory, but not near any major population centers.

 ** _The last known location of your father and brother._**

The slave camp. She had coordinates to the slave camp where Dad and Matt likely were.

 ** _Not yet. Wait for reinforcements._**

Pidge dropped her shoulders, feeling the powerful pull to just take off and start flying there on her own. But Green was right; she was alone and she had no way to make wormholes or access a Galra hyperdrive to cross the distance ( _but there's a thought, having a second option for super-speed travel_ ).

"So in the meantime, we keep busy. I'll work on that wrist communicator idea."

She felt pride running through the purr that Green sent.

* * *

Keith swam up from true sleep to awareness of himself, in the now-familiar red-gold aura of his Lion. Before he could try to wake up fully, he heard her voice.

 ** _Wait._**

He obeyed, taking the opportunity to bask in her reassuring presence. Her warmth surrounded and soothed him. He sent back his affection and trust and was rewarded with a thunderous purr.

 ** _Now._**

Keith opened his eyes to see the back of a medtech as he left the room. A noise drew his attention and he looked to see Perkins there. The man was doing something with his armor…

Keith bit back a gasp when he realized that Perkins was hiding his knife inside one of his gauntlets. He knew that Earthforce had no access to his bayard – Pidge had once tried to describe her theory on the tiny dimensional pockets that the armor seemed to possess, but he had been lost very quickly.

But his knife…it was one of the few things that had been passed down to him from his parents and he would be **damned** if they tried to take it from him.

Perkins turned and saw Keith's gaze on him. "I tried my best, son. Darzi's been reassigned, but if I'm going to be a witness against him I have to stay away. But you should be safe. General Benítez is in charge and she won't let anyone hurt you. But you should be honest with them when they start asking you questions again."

Keith's expression hardened at that. Perkins looked unsurprised. He laid one hand on Keith's shoulder. "Good luck, son." He went to the door, paused and checked the hallway, then left.

Keith tried yet again to get loose, attempting to slide up or down far enough to get one of his arms free enough to undo a strap. Just as he began to make headway, a new medtech entered the room. Without speaking, she set a syringe in her hand down and moved to roll up the sleeve of the arm they hadn't used yet.

"No, come on! Just stop it already! I'm not going to hurt anyone! Stop it!"

Without speaking, the woman picked up the syringe and clinically administered whatever was in it.

They were clearly learning. The sedative was strong enough to hit him immediately and he fell into blackness once more.

* * *

After eating, Pidge sat down with the sentry head and finished isolating its communicator. She set it out and began tinkering. She found the tech simple enough and reassembled the thing, mounting it on a clunky bracelet she fashioned from a piece of another sentry's wrist. She put on her helmet and tried speaking into the comm. "Pidge to Pidge, can you read me?"

Nothing. But she wasn't deterred. Pidge had figured that she might need the castle's resources to finish this invention. Now she wondered if the modification still worked on its original frequency.

"I need another head…" She looked around at the sorted salvage. "Oh, quiznak." She popped off the helmet and went outside.

She spotted Sofee playing with a few other Arusian children in the village square, looking much more normal than even a day ago thanks to the repurposed sentries.

"Hey, Sofee, if anyone asks, I ran back out to the Galra crash site. I need to find a couple of specific things. I should be back in less than a _bleer._ "

Sofee nodded and Pidge jogged to her speeder.

* * *

Hunk's face popped up on the comm screen. "And we are set, Princess! The transports are loaded and we just need to get the rest of the Metreans aboard. We'll be ready to take off on your command in about fifteen derbyshires."

" _Doboshes_ ," Coran corrected.

"Finally!" Allura's patience was at an end. She pulled up another screen. "Lance, is everyone ready for takeoff? The Metreans are almost ready."

Lance's face appeared on his screen. "We are all set, my lady." He gave an exaggerated bow and Allura tried to stamp down her now-reflexive impatience with her Blue Paladin's attitude.

Shiro took his seat and brought up his own controls. "Shiro to Pidge, do you read me?"

There was no answer.

"She's off without her helmet again."

Allura nodded. "At least she's in safe territory. And we should be there in less than a _varga_."

* * *

Pidge was cresting the ridge of the crash impact site when she realized that she had left both her helmet and the metal detector back in the village in her haste. She wondered if she would have left the rest of her armor if she hadn't put it on this morning out of habit.

"Oh, for crying out loud…"

But she remembered leaving a pile of sentry parts in the northwest quadrant after going through them for hands intact enough for the Galra-glove experiment. She drove the speeder over and hopped off, going to the pile of metal. Hopefully there was a head in good enough condition there.

She had tossed aside two heads that were too damaged to be of use and was digging for a third when she noticed a strange shadow zipping across the ground. She looked up and felt her heart jump into her mouth.

A Galra drone was zeroing in on her location.

She dove into the edges of the wreckage pile. If there were the slightest chance that they were only investigating the crash site, she might get lucky and remain undisco—

 _The speeder._

 _Quiznak._

Grabbing the element of surprise while she had it, she brought up her gauntlet and quickly turned on one of her most useful distractions. At the touch of a screen, a hologram Green Paladin raced from the salvage pile toward the speeder.

The drone reacted and fired on the running figure. The image showed static and winked out of existence.

Pidge stood and fired her bayard at the drone, sending crackling green energy through it. Its red lights went out and it fell to the surface as she retracted her blade.

 _Score!_

She started for the fallen drone, eager to investigate it, when a purple bolt hit the dirt not two feet from her. She ducked back behind the salvage, bringing her shield up as more bolts flew. She peeked carefully through a gap between a couple of legs and saw two more drones coming in. She worked her way to the other side of her barrier and watched the shadows.

As they honed in on her location, they swooped close together. She tumbled out and sent her bayard forth again, wrapping her grappling rope around one and swinging with all her might. The trapped drone collided with the second one and they exploded in a fireball.

There were no other drones in sight. Pidge knelt to catch her breath and sent assurance to her Lion, who was suddenly flooding her awareness with concern.

 _I'm fine, girl. I took care of them._

* * *

"Commander Prorok! Two more drones are offline!"

Prorok nodded at the shouted report from the soldier monitoring the scouts. "I think that's confirmation, don't you, Thace?"

Lieutenant Thace looked impassive. "It would seem so, sir."

Prorok opened a communication channel. "Commander Gelor, you are ordered to investigate the planet Arus and track down whoever is using Galra technology and taking out our drones. Deadly force is authorized, I repeat, deadly force is authorized."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments. You guys are helping me find my writing mojo again and I think my "Sense8" and Harry Potter folks will be very happy with that news.

* * *

After grabbing a pair of sentry heads that looked whole and tossing them into the cabin of her speeder, Pidge tried to shift the first fallen drone. But even though it was much smaller than the fighters used by the warships, it was still much bigger than she was and quite heavy. There was no way she would be able to bring it back to the village on her own, even with her anti-grav platform.

"Fine. When the others get here we'll load you into a spare cargo space. Then I can start taking you apart. In the meantime…" She brought up her gauntlet and powered up the scanner. Starting at one wingtip of the drone, she began carefully scanning every inch of the thing to create a schematic.

As she worked, she let her thoughts drift back to her family. She had the last known location of her father and brother. They had been together, were hopefully still alive. She began talking to herself.

"Maybe I can convince Allura and the others to go there first. We'll want to take them back to Earth after all, and if we go to the slave camp first we don't have to backtrack. One less wormhole for her to make."

She was two-thirds of the way through the scan when a thunderous boom rolled through the air. She looked up instantly, scanning for storm clouds, although the noise had been more self-contained than the thunder she knew. It was more like a sonic boom. And then she saw the silhouette rise over the far horizon.

Pidge ran for her speeder and threw herself into it. After a split second of debate she headed for the nearest set of rocky hills. Perhaps she could find a cave to hide in and wait the ship out. Maybe they didn't know where she was yet.

Regrettably, confirmation came in the form of a purple energy bolt, striking the ground to her right and tossing the speeder twenty yards to the left from the shockwave. She lurched and banged her head on the windscreen.

 _Yeah, not forgetting my helmet again…_

* * *

It had taken hours, hours he didn't have to spare, but Darzi had his new accomplice. He had carefully sounded out the people who showed disappointment or anger on his behalf after his imminent departure was announced. A captain who shared his views on the danger of alien threats had a cousin among the medtechs. The captain convinced him to help Darzi, then altered the schedule of people monitoring Kogane to put him there alone at 0330.

Darzi was still angry at himself for misjudging Perkins. Just because the man was slow in movement and speech didn't mean he was slow in thinking. And the problem with trusting a stand-up guy like Perkins was that his loyalty could shift if he decided the other side was more moral. But Perkins was gone already and no one else could bear witness to what had happened. Darzi reminded himself not repeat that mistake, not to let Kogane provoke him.

Darzi stepped inside and nodded at the medtech, Blackwell, who was already making preparations. The monitors for Kogane's vitals were set up with the alarms on them turned off. A saline drip was in place and ready to accept the drugs.

"All right. He's due for another round of sedatives in less than three hours. This is your best chance for countering the sedative with enough time to administer the amotrazephine once he's awake again and get a few questions in before we have to clear out."

"Understood. Start with the adrenaline."

The medtech stuck a syringe into the Y-set and began slowly adding adrenaline into the liquid. Darzi watched Kogane's face like a hawk, but there was no change yet. The rhythm of the monitors for heart rate, respiration, and brain activity did not shift.

Blackwell was watching the monitors, continuing to empty the syringe of adrenaline very slowly. When the syringe was empty, the medtech pulled it free. "That's the first dose. Starting the second dose. Given the previous evidence of his high tolerance for any drug, we will pause after the second dose to allow time for it to take effect. While we wait I will administer the first dose of amotrazephine."

"Understood."

Blackwell took the same care as before, adding the adrenaline very slowly and watching the monitors. The second dose was almost gone when both men noticed a quickening in the low beeps.

"It's working!"

The medtech finished the second dose and picked up a larger syringe. "Yes, all his vitals are showing signs of the stimulant. Starting the amotrazephine now."

* * *

Pidge had the speeder's throttle wide open, going as fast as she could toward the cover of the hills. She registered that a whine began to sound just before the shot went off and used that to dodge as randomly as she could, given her momentum. Two more blasts missed, with her being able to ride out the shockwaves, before her luck ran out.

She was almost to her goal when the next blast came too close and clipped the speeder. The automatic ejection system vaulted her into midair and she frantically tried to control her trajectory with her jet pack before gravity took over. Yet another strike missed and the shock wave sent her spinning through the air, rattling her already painful head. She screamed as she tried to right herself, hearing that telltale whine again.

The noise was eclipsed by a sudden roar and the blasts seemed to pause. Pidge focused, as she was hurtling toward the ridge of the rocky hills too fast, and yanked out her bayard. She shot the blade into the ground as an anchor and fired her jetpack in bursts to counter the centrifugal force before it could slam her into the ground. She landed sideways and rolled several yards before she could stop. She pushed up to her knees, her stomach ready to pull a Hunk, and she looked back.

The Green Lion was flying _on its own_. It appeared to have rammed the Galra ship hard enough to bend the ion cannon. Now it dove straight for her and instinctively Pidge scrambled to her feet and used her jet pack once more to jump high enough into the air to land in its open mouth.

She raced to the cockpit and threw herself in the pilot's seat. "All right, let's get this ship away from the Arusians!" They took off for the south, past the old location of the castle.

* * *

The Castle exited the wormhole and Allura held it in place until the Metrean transports were all through.

Coran activated his scanners to look for the Green Lion. They began flashing red and an alarm sounded. "Quiznak! Galra warship, headed south from our location!"

"Paladins! To your Lions! We need that ship destroyed immediately!"

Hunk left his position escorting the Metreans and shot in the direction indicated. Shiro and Lance ran for their doors and dove in, following seconds later.

Shiro spotted the ship as they flew over a mountain ridge. "Visual! One Galra warship…and the Green Lion! Jawblades out! Let's take it down!"

He went right and Lance went left, scoring the hull of the ship on both sides and leaving fireballs in their wake. Hunk activated his super-armor and surged up from beneath, head-butting the ship so its own blasts went harmlessly into the air. The Green Lion dove from above and fired its lasers into the bridge area.

Shiro arced the Black Lion around for another pass. "Pidge, can you hear us?"

There was a burst of static, then Pidge's voice came in. "—ight, forgot. The Lions have comm panels, too!"

"All right, everyone! One more attack, all lasers on full power. Pidge same target you just used. Lance, propulsion in the rear. Hunk, aim for the hull below the cannon. I'll come in from below. Everyone in position?" At the chorus of 'ayes', he shouted, "Fire!"

The Galra ship cracked apart in flames.

* * *

 _They're trying again._

Keith could feel his awareness returning, though he didn't bother to open his eyes. Two voices mumbled as if discussing something, then one of them, a new voice, rose and addressed him.

"Cadet Kogane, please tell us about the events of six weeks ago when you and several others disappeared in a ship that looked like a blue lion."

"You wouldn't listen to Shiro." _You never listen._

"Where did the lion take you?"

"Home." _The Blue Lion brought us to her home._

Another voice interrupted. "I was right! He is an alien! Ask about the knife!"

"Where did you get the knife you carry?"

"Parents." _It was in a box of things. The only things I got from them._

The second voice crowed. "See?"

"Get control of yourself. He's not really giving us enough information to determine that."

"But the amotrazephine—"

"Is not foolproof. He's practically answering in monosyllables. We need details."

"Then give him more!"

"Two doses sent him into a near-catatonic state last time. You'll lose every chance if I do."

"Perkins said he was controlling that! If we give him more, then maybe he'll be too out of it to retreat like that."

There was a long pause, enough to make Keith wonder if Darzi was about to lose yet another ally.

"A quarter-dose. I'm not willing to go farther than that."

"Fine!"

 _Damn._

* * *

As the ship touched down on level ground near its original location, Allura began issuing orders. "Hunk, lead the Metrean transports on a scouting run and see if there is a location they think will be suitable. Lance, bring your Lion in and go to the passenger halls and find the Holts. Shiro, check on Pidge. Coran, keep up constant scans in case more Galra show up. I'm going to the Arusian village to let them know what's going on."

Like the cogs in a well-oiled machine, they all sprang to do their part.

* * *

Lance raced down the hallways, answering questions from the former slaves on the fly. "We're good for now! Galra ship is destroyed! We've landed, we just need to coordinate with the Arusians and find a good place for you all! Hang tight!"

He skidded to a stop in front of the door to the Holts' quarters. It slid open to reveal Matt ready to leave and the doctor pulling on a jacket.

"What's the word?" Matt looked at Lance with the mild squint he had developed in a year without glasses or contact lenses.

"We've landed on Arus. There was an issue with a Galra warship, but it's been taken care of."

Dr. Holt looked alarmed. "Is Katie all right?"

"I think so. Shiro? Have you got Pidge yet?"

"Almost. She's heading back now."

"I'm here, I'm here! Sorry! I promise not to forget my helmet again until I have the wrist communicators ready!"

"What wrist communicators?" Lance asked, baffled, and the Holts looked just as baffled since they had no way to hear the entire conversation.

"Yeah, so we can stay in touch even when we're out of uniform."

"Okay, that is a good idea. Meet me in your hangar?"

"What, now? I need to go back to the village. I left my helmet and all my projects and—Shiro! I think I found where Dad and Matt are! We can—"

"Pidge," Shiro interrupted. "Trust me. Take your Lion to the hangar first."

"Why…okay, I'm coming."

Lance's grin threatened to split his face. He grabbed each of the Holts by an arm. "This way! Let's go!"

* * *

Pidge set Green down in the hangar and scrubbed one hand through her hair. She felt filthy after her desperate race from the Galra. She was definitely going to have a very, very long bath. She smothered an 'ow' when her fingers found the place where she had hit her head. Time in a cryo-pod was on the agenda as well.

But first she would see what the heck Lance thought was so important, then corner Shiro and Allura about rescuing her family before making the trip to Earth. Her arguments were logical and practical, but she knew Allura was frantic about Keith. And that was also a logical reaction, given that they had had absolutely no signal from him. But Keith couldn't get into too much trouble on Earth, could he?

Lance and a couple of humanoids entered the bay doors on the other side of the hangar. Pidge wondered idly who they were as she left the cockpit and followed the ramp down to exit her Lion. People he had picked up on his adventure, perhaps. He had found a work camp of some sort and saved the workers from the Galra…

 _Wait._

 _It_ ** _can't_** _be._

She jumped the rest of the way down the ramp and out into the hangar.

"Katie!"

She didn't realize she had started running until she slammed into her father, flinging her arms around him. A second pair of arms enveloped them both. She heard a voice crying over and over, "It's you! It's really you!" Belatedly she realized it was her own voice.

"It's us, all right!" That was Matt.

"Kiddo, we are so glad to see you!" Dr. Holt pressed his cheek to her temple and Pidge blinked. She was so much taller now than when they had left for Kerberos! Fighting a sudden wave of dizziness, she pulled back enough to get a good look at them. She noticed Lance hanging back and swiping his eyes in a suspicious manner.

"I can't believe it! I just found records of where you were taken, I was about to beg Allura to go get you before we went back to Earth! But you're here!" She jumped into her father's arms again and hugged him with all her might.

"My turn, runt!" Matt tugged at her and the siblings embraced. Matt then pushed her to arm's length and looked her over. "I think I like you better with long hair. You look too much like me, now."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "It was the only way to get access to the Garrison after Iverson banned me. And it worked – they never recognized me there!"

Her father chuckled and laid a hand on her head. Pidge pulled back and hissed as pain flared. "Kiddo? What's wrong?"

"Nothing important. Banged my head during the fight. That'll teach me to leave my helmet behind."

"Whoa, you're injured?" Lance interrupted. "We need to tell Allura and get you into a cryo-pod!"

Pidge started to shake her head, realized that would be a huge mistake, and replied, "No, I need to talk to them first about going to the coordinates I found…" She trailed off as her brain caught up with the changed situation. Her family was already here. They could leave straight for Earth at any time.

Her senses were starting to get fuzzy. Pidge clinically assessed the probability of a concussion as her legs started to give out.

Lance darted forward and caught her before she could fall. "Yep, definitely a cryo-pod for you!" He scooped her up and headed for the hangar doors. "This way!"

* * *

He could feel a difference now. His thoughts felt less under his control and his link to Red seemed more tenuous than before. _Red!_

 _ **I am here.**_

 _Don't let me go!_

 _ **Never, my Paladin. Stay with me.**_

"His brain function is a bit slower, but his heart rate is increasing. I don't like it."

"Ask quickly, then!"

"What is the Voltron?"

Keith tried to stay silent, but the notion that Voltron was a thing had to be denied. "Not the Voltron."

"What do you mean?"

"Not an it. A team." _The best team I could ever be a part of._

"What team? Who else is on this team?"

"Answer us! Who else? McClain? Garrett? Gunderson? What happened to them?"

"Defenders…" _Defenders of the Universe._

"A bunch of second-rate cadets, a compromised pilot, and a punk like you? How could you defend anything?" He felt a hand on his face, gripping his chin, and remembered the last time this man had laid hands on him. Panic sent his heart rate skyrocketing.

At that Red's presence surged forward, stronger than ever before. She snarled in his defense. _**Paladin! Let me in!**_

Keith opened his mind to her.

* * *

Blackwell forcibly yanked Darzi's arm, breaking his grip on Kogane, and looked nervously at the monitors. "His brain function is quickening. I don't understand how that could be."

"Then add more amotrazephine! The others thought it was slowing things too much but that's not the case!"

The medtech swallowed and put another syringe in place, ready to add the drug in tiny steps.

The youth opened his eyes.

His glowing, golden eyes.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments. You guys are helping me find my writing mojo again and I think my "Sense8" and Harry Potter folks will be very happy with that news.

* * *

Darzi bit back a scream as those shimmering eyes focused on him. A deep, growling voice issued from Kogane's lips and yet echoed all around them. **"Treachery! Deceit! You are not worth our efforts!"** The foundations of the building shook with an impossibly loud lion's roar.

Blackwell yanked the syringe out of its line and backed away.

 **"** **You demand answers to foolish questions and yet do not listen to my Paladin! Why should we help you? Why?"**

The shaking grew worse as another roar sounded even louder. The distant sounds of panic among the Garrison woke Darzi from his fear-induced stupor. "That ship! Something about that ship is connected to him!"

The shaking was reaching earthquake levels, sending carts rolling. In a near panic, the medtech seized the sedative and ripped the cap off, driving the needle into the boy's neck and pressing the plunger.

* * *

 _Red! What are you doing?_

It wasn't like before. Before, Keith had been able to float and drift in the Lion's aura, secure in the knowledge that he was safe here.

Now, the red-gold around him roiled and surged. He had to actively try to stay in one place, like swimming against a tide, even though he was essentially without form.

 _Red! Please!_

 ** _I will protect you against these beasts!_**

And then he was pulled along with her, back into his body. He opened his eyes and felt her presence deep inside him. His vision was strange; he saw the two men in front of him, layered with inner glows. The stranger, yet another medtech with a terrified expression, was a sickly blue-gray. It gave Keith the impression of a toady, a craven follower.

Darzi's glow was an oily brown, poisonous and repulsive.

What he could see of his own body shone white with blue and green tints. It reminded him of the glows that Allura had produced when she restored the Balmera.

Red was speaking through him, screaming her fury at his captors. He could feel the trembling of the earth. Something shifted and now he was seeing through her eyes as well. She had dropped the force field and risen to her feet, roaring and causing panic among the people around her. She opened her jaws and prepared to send fire among them.

 _NO!_

He leaned into their connection and pulled with everything he had. The Lion's head jerked up and the flames went skyward.

 ** _Paladin! They hold you, hurt you, defile your very being! You would be dead if not for the effects of the Quintessence you absorbed!_**

 _It's not all of them! Not those people outside! It's just the ones who follow Darzi. Please, Red! If they try hard enough, they could destroy you! I can't lose you!_

That made her pause and consider. Carelessly she brought back the force field, easily blocking the barrage of bullets and shells as the Garrison soldiers began firing back at her. She circled inside it, slowly and deliberately calming herself.

Suddenly his being was on fire. His vision snapped back to his own body and he felt the stab of a needle in his neck. His awareness seemed to be swallowed by impenetrable darkness.

 _RED! Where are you?_

* * *

While most of the personnel either ran outside to witness the lion ship moving and attacking or sought to get the students indoors to safety, Iverson led a dozen guardsmen into the medwing.

Someone he didn't know, a captain with a nametag reading 'Baker', tried to stop them. "No admittance."

"The hell with that! This is **my** school!" Two of the guards shoved the captain aside and the rest of them charged down the hall. Iverson turned a corner just in time to see Darzi and a medtech backing out of the room where young Kogane was being held. With a furious roar, Iverson charged forward and threw a punch at Darzi's face. Darzi went down, clutching his nose as it began to bleed profusely.

"What did you do? You were ordered to stay away from him!"

The medtech swallowed hard, backing away from Darzi. "Two doses of adrenaline. One and one half doses of amotrazephine. Three doses of pentobexital."

Iverson whirled and pointed at the nearest guard. "You! Get General Benítez and the highest-ranking doctor available **now**!"

* * *

After Coran's assurances that Pidge would only need an hour or so in a cryo-pod for a banged head, Lance convinced the Holts to help with preparations for the off-loading of the former slaves. Allura returned with the Arusian King and Klaizap and led a large group of people to a room Lance had never seen, with a large oval table and comfy chairs.

And for the first time, Lance saw Allura fully in her element as a princess. She introduced to each group in turn: the Arusians, the former slaves represented by Dr. Holt and Thel-myr of the Jocrai, and the Metreans represented by a pair of very large spidery beings called Luvixx and Xivay.

Lance was careful to sit as far away from them as possible.

Shiro and Hunk were there as well, but it was Allura who listened carefully to each group's opening thoughts, asked the right questions to clarify what was a true need and what was simply a concern, and began negotiating the best possible locations for the former slaves and the Metreans. Lance knew she wanted to simply toss it all in their laps and take off for Earth, but she lived up to her responsibilities.

Things had progressed well enough that when Pidge and Matt poked their heads in Dr. Holt excused himself. He assured Thel-myr that he would send in Kltpzyxm to assist. Hunk also left, claiming a need to see to his Lion.

Once the door closed behind them, Hunk pulled Pidge into a bear hug. "I am so glad to see you! Are you sure you spent enough time in the cryo-pod? Is Green okay?"

Pidge returned the hug happily. "Yes, and yes."

"Great! Come meet Varixian! He's one of the Metrean techies – you'll love him!"

Pidge's eyes shone at the thought of yet more tech from a new civilization and she grabbed Matt's hand. "What are we waiting for?"

* * *

The doctor straightened, lifting his stethoscope from the young man's chest and looping it around his own neck. He took one more look at the monitors, giving slow beeps and showing a very shallow undulating wave.

General Benítez lost her grip on her patience. "Well?"

"I'm sorry, General. It looks like the drug combination has sent him into a coma. There's barely any brain activity at the moment."

Iverson swallowed hard. "Is there any chance of recovery?"

"There's no way to tell. It's possible that letting the drugs work their way out of his system will be enough. Or it's possible that this is permanent. Either way, I recommend moving him to the medical facility at Roswell. We can arrange the transfer for tomorrow."

He led Benítez out. Iverson stood next to the gurney holding his former cadet and lowered his head, letting the guilt wash over him. If he'd tried harder to lead Kogane, channel his fury over Shirogane's disappearance in a positive direction—and Katie Holt's, for that matter—he might have helped create the most talented pilot of his generation. If he'd fought harder when Darzi bulldozed in and claimed jurisdiction… If he had just gone to Benítez openly instead of trying to gather evidence through Perkins…

Instead they now had to wait and see if the boy was even going to wake up, much less fly again.

Iverson clutched Keith's shoulder for a moment, then followed the others out, wiping at his eyes.

* * *

Pidge's eyes were aglow and she and Matt dug through Varixian's kit. He explained each of the tools as they pulled them out and demonstrated when asked. Matt reached into a large bag and pulled out an object that looked for all the world like an early-generation cell phone. It even had a case with a loop for wearing on a belt.

"What's this thing?"

Varixian looked and nodded. "That is a prey-stalker. It is a camouflage tool for hunters. Hunk had the brilliant idea of linking them into a net that was big enough to hide our entire camp."

"Yeah, but then one shorted out."

"That wasn't your fault, Hunk. It was still a brilliant idea."

Matt found a switch and thumbed it. To the others' eyes, he vanished.

"Whoa!" Pidge nearly danced in glee.

"Did it work?" Matt's voice came out of thin air, then Pidge realized she could see movement, as if the wall behind him was alive and shifting.

"That is so cool! I wonder if I can adapt something like this to use in our armor? Or even better, make it hide noise and movement as well as sight?"

"Oh yeah, and while you do that, could you please add the cloaking tech to the Yellow Lion? I really could have used it a couple of times."

She nodded. "Sure thing. But these first! Matt, help me!"

They dug into the bag for more of them.

* * *

Benítez watched from a window as that red lion ship paced inside its barrier. Nothing they had to hand had penetrated. Bullets and shells were useless. They had risked one small-load missile, only to have it bounce off the barrier and explode _far_ too near the Garrison. Since then it had been stalemate. They could not damage it without trying a dangerous amount of firepower, but it had not repeated its terrifying warning shot of flames.

She scrubbed at her face and went to gather her computer and papers. She was leaving for Roswell in a few minutes to make absolutely sure that Kogane's arrival would be expected and include top-of-the-line medical support. An Earthforce regiment would stay to support the Garrison.

She made a mental note to follow up with Iverson tomorrow about who else might have been part of Darzi's final attempt. The medtech would not have had enough access to switch the schedules and put himself there alone. In the meantime, Iverson had his most trusted guardsmen on rotation to guard Kogane while the medical staff from the Garrison monitored him. No one else from Earthforce was getting near that boy except herself.

* * *

Darkness. He was alone in the darkness. For an agonizing and unknown length of time he drifted in total blackness.

This wouldn't have been so hard to take even two months ago. Two months ago it was him, alone in the desert, continuing to explore the caves and record more of the lion carvings. Two months ago he could go for weeks without seeing another human being, depending on whether he felt the need to make a run into town for perishables to supplement his supply of canned goods.

Two months ago, the only things that kept him from falling into suicidal thoughts were the approaching Day of Arrival as predicted by the prehistoric stories and long runs on his hover-bike.

Now, he had gotten Shiro back. He had somehow become part of a team, a team doing vital work. He had a soul-deep bond with a sentience that promised to always be there for him.

Now, the darkness was almost unbearable.

He began pushing, trying to move his awareness around. He looked for something, anything, that might give him direction.

 _Red, you promised! Where are you?_

The shimmer, when it happened, was so brief that he thought he had imagined it. But he watched, concentrating on where he thought he had seen it.

And it happened again. A tiny streak of red light, zipping from him into the distance.

He followed, focusing on the direction it led. The streaks began to increase in frequency until they were almost a pulse. Keith reached with every fiber of his essence…

And the pulses coalesced into a gossamer-thin thread. He reached again, pouring all the strength he could muster into that thread…

 ** _…_** ** _Paladin…_**

He could hear her! The thread shimmered again and seemed to gain substance.

 _Red! Red, I'm here!_

 ** _…_** ** _Paladin…here…_**

 _RED!_

Inch by inch, he followed the line as it solidified and strengthened.

* * *

By the time the negotiations were done, Allura was ready to collapse.

But she had succeeded. The Arusians had specified the amount of territory that they wished to keep as their own. The former slaves were going to use the supplies taken from their prison to begin constructing a settlement in a valley that bordered the Arusians' chosen area. The Metreans were going to claim an area about two days' ride away by speeder. It consisted of plains similar to their previous colony, next to the shores of a large lake.

As the last of the supplies were offloaded, Allura gave distress beacons to the Metreans and the former slaves. "I dearly hope these will never be used. We will return here as soon as we have gotten our Red Paladin back, start helping those who can to return home, and coordinate the search for more Metreans. We will also use the information that our Green Paladin has gathered to find more slave camps and free those prisoners."

Luvixx interlocked fingers from all his hands in a complicated salute. Thel-myr put one fist to the opposite shoulder and replied, "May the winds blow at your back, Princess."

She bowed and stepped onto the hovercraft, rising to board the Castle-ship. She strode briskly to the bridge and found everyone there. Shiro, Lance, and Coran were at their stations. Doctor Holt was staying to the side, out of the way. Pidge, Hunk, and Matt were huddled near Pidge's station, tinkering with some contraption they had picked up from the Metreans and…Pidge's Paladin armor?

"What are you doing?"

They looked up and Pidge launched into an explanation. "We want to be prepared in case we end up having to rescue Keith. Hunk and I were able to increase the capability of these camo units to hide us from sight and sound in case we need to sneak in somewhere. Matt wanted to know how powerful our jetpacks are, and I explained that they were meant for space maneuvers, not flight. He's boosting their power so we'll be able to actually fly in our gravity and atmosphere if we need to."

"Excellent work, all of you! I do hope it's simply a matter of letting Keith know when we arrive, but it does no harm to be prepared."

"Um, Allura?"

She turned, frowning at the very hesitant tone in Lance's voice. "Yes?"

"I know we need to get back here and help and all, but I…I wanted to know…can we see our families?"

Allura's mouth fell open at that. How could she have forgotten?

"Of course, Lance! We'll find a way for all of you to communicate with your families! There's no question of that!"

He gave her a shaky smile before focusing on his control panel. She took her place and rested her hands on the steering poles. "All right, Coran. Enter the coordinates for System Sol." She traded a grin with Pidge, who had suggested the name.

"As you command, Princess."

* * *

The Castle-ship emerged from its wormhole on the far side of Jupiter. From there, Allura was easily able to feel the Red Lion's presence and initiated a second wormhole.

They emerged in a bright blue sky. They were well inside Earth's atmosphere, approaching a large installation, and the four Paladins recognized the Garrison. Coran looked up from his monitor. "There's the Red Lion! It looks like they've surrounded it, but it's inside its force field!"

"Good," Allura replied. "Now all we need is Keith. Surely we can hail him at this range."

"I don't see any evidence of damage on the outside, but it's possible internal systems are still repairing themselves," Shiro offered. "Zarkon gave the Red Lion quite a beating."

She opened the link to Keith's communicator. "Keith, it's Allura. We made it. Where are you?"

They heard a startled voice and a clang of something falling. "Who is that?" An unfamiliar voice responded, sounding quite surprised.

"What?" As she paused, completely thrown, the Paladins seemed to react as lights began flashing on the buildings and people started running everywhere.

Shiro stepped forward. "Princess, the garrison is going into lockdown. We have to assume they've got Keith somewhere inside."

She nodded and adjusted the controls so that her voice would carry on a wide spread of communication frequencies. "I am Princess Allura of the planet Altea. I am here to reclaim my Paladin and his ship, the Red Lion." She paused and put some extra steel in her voice. " **Where is he?** "

Inside its shield, the Red Lion lifted its head and roared. Allura gasped, staggering as the Lion communicated directly to her in a cascade of images. The fact that the Lion was able to do this was quickly forgotten as she processed the information and exploded in anger.

"You imprisoned him? **You drugged him?** How dare you! Release him at once or face the consequences!"

"Cadet Kogane is a member of our forces, one who disappeared in suspicious circumstances. His actions suggest treason against Earth. We need answers!" The voice was bombastic but Allura could hear the high tones of fright in it.

Lance shouted, "He's not a cadet, he's a civilian! You kicked him out for being a discipline problem! That's how I ended up fighter class!"

"You heard my Blue Paladin. You have no authority to detain a member of the Voltron team. Release him and send him to his ship, now!"

"Wait a minute," a new voice broke in. "Is that Cadet McClain?"

Allura frowned, seeing Lance, Pidge, and Hunk all freeze in place. "Identify yourself."

"I'm Commander Iverson. I'm the one who convinced Keith to come out and talk to us. Then Earthforce chose to double-cross me and took him. He's being held in the medwing, section L5, under heavy guard. They've begun the process of transferring him to another facility."

"Iverson, I'll see you court-martialed for this!"

"The hell you will, Baker! You were one of Darzi's people, weren't you? He's not here now to back you up!"

"Enough!" Allura snapped. "For the final time, release my Red Paladin and allow him to return to his ship!"

Baker snapped back, "Negative. You have no rights to an Earth civilian."

Deliberately leaving the link open, Allura looked at Shiro. "Paladins, retrieve your missing comrade. Try not to hurt too many of them in the process."

She broke the connection, taking a very un-regal satisfaction at the sudden squawk of panic on the other end.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments. We are hitting endgame, but things have cropped up as I've written and it'll take a few chapters to tidy it all up.

* * *

"Well, that's blown that."

Allura looked up at Shiro's wry comment. "What?"

Pidge adjusted her glasses. "You just announced that we're coming to get Keith. Good thing we have the individual cloaking devices, because if we're seen we're going to have to fight."

Allura put her face in her hands as she realized what she had said. "Oh, no. I am so sorry! I was so angry…"

"It's not too bad!" Lance offered. "At least we know which section he's in. We don't have to search the whole base."

"I think I can do better than that!"

Everyone looked at Coran as his hands flew over his control panel.

"Just a couple more tics…there! I've located Keith's armor by scanning for Altean energy signatures." He brought up a screen showing a floor plan of the building. A red dot was in the last room at the end of a long hallway. "If we can drop a BLIP tech sensor somewhere, we'll be able to verify Keith's location and track everyone else, you as well as any forces they have."

Shiro looked around. "I'm a little hesitant about using the Lions to get down to the planet. Until we can find someone that we _know_ is going to hear us out, we have to treat this situation as infiltrating enemy territory."

"And an enemy we don't want to shoot at," Hunk added.

Pidge pursed her lips. "How about this? Earthforce already knows about the Blue Lion. It can distract everyone by making a flyover, like it's doing reconnaissance. The four of us go in with Green cloaked, close enough to drop us on the Garrison roof, and she goes back to her hangar without being seen."

Lance blinked at her. "How will that work? You're talking like the Lions can fly themselves!"

"They can. I was still on the ground when Green first attacked that Galra ship on Arus. And remember how Keith said Red went after him when they first bonded?"

Lance stared at her, then focused his thoughts on Blue. _You've been holding out on me?_

 ** _Of course not. Until now we have not had a situation where you needed me to act independently from you._**

 _So we can do this?_

 ** _Yes. It is a good plan._**

"Er…okay, then. Let's do this!"

* * *

Sam Holt stood to the side and watched as his daughter, dressed in the green and white armor again, made the rounds and checked that her teammates' personal cloaking devices were working perfectly. His son did the same for the modified jetpacks, explaining how they could now be switched from "air mode" to "space mode". Matt was already fitting into this new situation, already being accepted as one of them.

He wasn't so sure about himself.

He had stepped forward willingly when the other prisoners in the camp needed him to do so. If there were truly a role for him here…the thought of exploring hundreds of systems, meeting thousands of aliens in better circumstances than before…he would be lying if he said he didn't want that chance.

But there was Colleen to consider. They absolutely had to get in touch with her, preferably without Earthforce finding out. Between Lance, Shiro, and Katie, he had a pretty good impression of the mess made after their disappearance, multiplied by their reaction to Shiro's return. If only they had taken even a few minutes to _listen_ to him, how differently would everything have played out? But they hadn't listened to Shiro. It seemed that they hadn't listened to this Keith, either. If they couldn't learn from their mistakes, then Sam wanted nothing more to do with Earthforce.

So the trick was to find a way to contact Colleen without alerting any authorities. That could be supremely difficult. He was a biologist, not a tech wizard like his children, but he suspected that when the princess changed her settings to broadcast her message to a wide audience, she might have reached farther than intended.

A very familiar sound intruded his thoughts, one he had not heard in years. Matt and Katie were nose to nose, yelling in each other's faces.

"You are not coming and that's final!"

"I'm older than you, I get to decide if I'm coming or not!"

"Shiro! Tell him!"

Shrio glanced over at Sam and he shook his head just a fraction. Katie was right—Matt might be willing, but Katie was the one with the experience of working with this team.

Besides, at this point he didn't think he could handle both of his children going into danger at the same time.

Shiro stepped forward and laid his flesh hand on Matt's shoulder. "Not this time, Matt. It may be our home planet, but we are going into hostile territory and we have all had the chance to work together and learn each other. You haven't had that opportunity yet. If you still want it when all this is over, we will certainly hear you out. Understood?"

Matt's eyes smoldered in anger, but he responded to Shiro's air of authority. He nodded and ground out, "Understood."

"Shadow Coran. It's possible he'll be needed elsewhere in the Castle and you might have to monitor his station."

Hunk shoved his helmet on. "All right, let's do this!"

* * *

His progress was slow. Each push to follow the link to Red was like swimming in mud. But every time he called, she answered, and every time it was a little stronger. The red light kept adding to itself – his lifeline was now the size of a rope.

 ** _Paladin! They have arrived! They come!_**

Keith didn't reply, saving his strength. Red knew where he was. But he redoubled his efforts to make his way back to her.

* * *

Blue soared out of the hangar and flew down, making a lap around the Garrison. Red stood and roared, ready to join her, but Blue warned her off.

 ** _Wait for your opportunity. We are retrieving your Paladin._**

Once she had every eye on her, Blue alerted her Paladin that it was time. She continued to circle the Garrison until she felt her Paladin's relief that the team was safe inside. She swept in a wider arc and decided to give some trouble to the people that had treated a Paladin of Voltron so unfairly. She set a course for the north, zooming over every town and city she could see.

* * *

They huddled in Green's cockpit, waiting for the signal that Blue had everyone's attention. Pidge went around and thumbed the switch on the cloaking devices. Lance watched as one by one, they disappeared from sight.

Pidge's voice sounded through his comm. "All right. Activate setting 'Personal Cloak' in your visors."

Lance did so. His visor darkened the way it had during Coran's training session ages ago, then three ghostly figures appeared around him. He held up a hand to find that he had turned the same opaque gray. "Whoa!"

"Now, we can see and hear one another, but no one else can see or hear us. As long as we don't bump into anything, we'll remain undetected."

Shiro's ghost image nodded in approval. "Excellent work, Pidge. Now, make sure all weapons are set to stun until further notice. Our goal is to get Keith out with minimal casualties."

 ** _Go._**

"Blue says it's time!"

Pidge's ghost form sat in the pilot's seat. "All right, girl. Cloak on, let's go."

* * *

Green flew down silently, not acknowledging Red's seething presence. Once she was about ten meters above their target, she hovered and opened the hatch in the top of her head. One by one, the team climbed out and made their way to her nose, activating their jetpacks and jumping off. Once they were landed, she rose and headed back to the hangar.

Then she sent reassurance to Red, who sat inside her force bubble and began to wait for the right moment, tail twitching angrily.

* * *

The four Paladins landed silently on the roof of the Garrison. Intentionally or not, Pidge had guided them to the space where she used to bring her gear and monitor alien signals.

They went to the access door. Pidge raised her gauntlet to the keypad lock and decoded it in a few seconds. She shook her head. "We've been gone weeks, months maybe, and left in the middle of an alien crisis. And they _still_ haven't changed the code? Morons."

"Don't question the good luck. _Never_ question the good luck," Hunk shot back as he opened the door and started down the stairs.

* * *

Desai hovered near the door, as far away from the pile of red-and-white armor as she could be yet still easily see the monitors on Kogane. At first she had been very glad when Iverson selected her as one of the most trusted medtechs to watch him, given that she had been naïve enough to let herself get drugged by Darzi. But since that voice had sounded from the helmet, promising retribution if her Red Paladin had been harmed, Desai had been extremely nervous.

After all, being sent into a coma by a poisonous cocktail of drugs was harm by anyone's definition.

Something pulled her from her thoughts. She frowned, trying to figure out what she had noticed. There were no rumblings from outside, where that lion ship occasionally paced and roared. No noise in the hallway – the rest of the patients had been moved to the medwing in B5 and the guards were stationed at the entrance on the other end.

Then she looked at the monitors.

She started forward involuntarily, before remembering her fears and halting. But even from this side of the room, she could see that Kogane's brain activity had sped up by a fraction. As she watched, it jumped up again. She smiled – at that rate, he would be out of the levels defined as comatose by the end of the day!

She took off down the hall to find Iverson and report.

* * *

Sam waited until the team had exited the hangar, then approached the main console. "Princess, I have a question."

"Yes, Doctor?"

"What information would you need to be able to open communication with a specific frequency? For example, we use communication devices that can bring up video links through unique codes, such as telephone numbers or email addresses."

She looked over at the mustachioed man, Coran, who was showing Matt various features at his station. "Coran, do you think we can match our communications to an individual here?"

"I expect so, given a few minutes. What's the target?"

Matt looked at his father curiously, then realization hit. "You want to get in touch with Mom!" He spun back to the station controls. "Here, Coran! Where would you enter a new code for opening communication with a new race?"

Coran showed him, and Matt paused for a moment. "Help me with your number system?"

* * *

They made their way in, avoiding a few patrols with ease by flattening themselves against walls as the guards moved by. Most of the students and personnel were behind locked doors due to the security alert. Near the entrance to L5 North Hunk spotted a pair of trash receptacles.

"Here, give me the BLIP sensor." Shiro passed it to him and Hunk opened the container, pulling up the plastic lining and setting the sensor in the bottom. He touched the activation switch and everyone saw the brief sweep of light as the device began scanning the facility. Hunk replaced the lining and the cover and patted it. "That should work for a while."

"Good work," Shiro agreed. "Allura, do you have any readings yet?"

"Yes, it's working perfectly. Give me a moment to pull it up…" They all waited, listening hard for any sign of patrols.

"Confirmed!" Allura's voice shook with relief. "Keith is in the same room where Coran found his armor. Continue to your left into the medical facility. There is a patrol stationed at the entrance to the hallway with five guards. No, four. One has broken off and is moving with another human toward your position very quickly."

Heeding her warning, the team backed themselves against walls and waited until a guard and a woman in a white lab coat ran past them.

As they slipped around a corner, they had visual. Three of the guards were standing together, having a conversation in very hushed tones. The fourth guard was scanning the hallways. Shiro assessed and spoke.

"Pidge, can you get all three of them with your bayard and stun them?"

"Yes!"

"Lance, you have the last one. Wait for my mark, both of you…" Shiro paused long enough for them to get into position. "Now!"

Lance's shot dropped the first guard, startling the other three. But before any of them could step away, they were drawn together by a vibrant green line. Energy surged down it and the three men collapsed.

Shiro ran forward and checked the hallway. "All clear from my view! Allura!"

"You're clear! No one else is nearby!"

"Let's move!"

* * *

She was concentrating so hard on the breaking-news reports coming from the television that she barely noticed when her tablet vibrated in her lap. Hundreds of people had reported hearing a threatening conversation between the Galaxy Garrison headquarters and an unknown alien race. Some had heard it on the radio. Others had their phone conversations interrupted. The media had been trying to track down online reports that a group of podcasters might have actual proof of the conversation, thanks to recording their online conversation at the time.

And now video evidence was flooding in of an alien ship tracking north from the Garrison toward Canada.

Colleen Holt didn't know what to think. First her husband and son had disappeared on their voyage to Kerberos. The pilot, a young man who had become a dear friend in the months of training leading to the excursion, was blamed for crashing the ship. Katie had flatly refused to believe it, to the extent of disguising herself as a boy to get access to the Garrison and investigate their records.

And then Katie had vanished as well. Oh, Earthforce had given out some information of three cadets being killed in a training accident, but Colleen knew something was wrong with that story, just as Katie had known something was wrong with the Kerberos story. The report had come on the heels of sightings of a strange animal-shaped ship flying around in the desert and international reports of a small UFO attacking a much larger one and leading it away from Earth.

She had tried to reach out to the McClains and the Garretts, the families of the other two cadets. But they hadn't wanted to listen. They had dismissed her ideas as those of a woman pushed too far by grief and distanced themselves.

So she was alone, watching the news as it spread to national and international levels. The tablet vibrated again and she picked it up listlessly, opening the connection without looking down at the screen.

"Hello?"

"Colleen! Colleen, darling!"

She looked down and nearly screamed at the sight of Sam and Matt. In the background there were two other…people? Elves? What were those strange ears?

* * *

General Benítez felt the small plane suddenly bank and begin a sweeping turn. She leaned forward, shouting to the open door to the cockpit. "What's going on? Why are we turning around?"

As she shouted, her mobile went off. A voice on the other end spoke without preamble, "General, the Garrison is being attacked! Your presence is required immediately!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments. My updates may slow down over the next few chapters as I've almost run out of what I had written already, but basically I'm going to be cleaning up my messes and finding most of my loose ends.

* * *

Desai burst into the conference room where Iverson, Baker, and several other officers were arguing while they waited for General Benítez to return. The medtech began babbling something about Kogane before Iverson had the chance to tell her off for breaking the lockdown protocol. Then he began to decipher what she was trying to say.

"…going to wake up. Maybe by the end of the day! He's going to be all right!"

"That's good, that's very good! But you shouldn't have left your post or been moving around during the lockdown. We've got an alien ship up there and until we can establish communication with it we have to keep everyone out of the way." Iverson picked up a radio from his desk. "Squad 1524, report in. Someone needs to stay in the room with Kogane until Desai and I return."

There was no answer.

"Squad 1524, acknowledge!"

Baker picked up his own radio. "All Earthforce units, we suspect a security breach. Everyone inside the main building, surround section L5 and move in. Everyone outside, you are authorized to fire on the aliens if they attack first." At his words, the klaxon began to sound across the campus.

Iverson snarled at him. He couldn't belay that order from his own radio because the Garrison and Earthforce operated on different frequencies.

But he could do something else, something that would be more effective than trying to fight Baker for his radio. "Dos Santos, Montgomery, I am ordering the arrest of Captain Baker for trespass on Garrison property. See that he does not leave this room or use that radio until further notice." He turned and raced from the room.

* * *

" _Sam! Matt!_ "

Sam saw his wife snatch up the tablet and stare into it, trying to convince herself that what she was seeing was real.

"Yes, Colleen, it's us. We're back…well, almost back. Shiro and Katie are taking care of something and then we'll figure out how to get to you."

"Katie? How…how…what happened? Have you reported to Earthforce yet?"

"No!" Matt cried at the same time that Sam shook his head.

"Colleen, whatever you do, do NOT contact Earthforce or the Garrison! They're holding Shiro and Katie's team member prisoner—that's what they're doing right now, trying to get him back."

"Katie's…team? I don't understand! What's going on? Where were you? You've been gone over a year, Katie's been missing almost seven weeks—"

"I know, I know!" Sam tried to head her off before she lost control.

Next to him, Sam heard Matt hiss under his breath, "Over a _year?_ "

"Colleen, let me explain. We made it to Kerberos safely, but were captured by a scouting ship belonging to a race of aliens called the Galra." Behind them Sam could hear the princess directing the team and tried to condense the story. They might be needed. "Matt and I ended up separated from Shiro, put in a work camp of sorts, until a few days ago when we were freed by a member of the Voltron Force, a kid named Lance from the Garrison of all places."

"Lance McClain is alive? What about the Garrett boy? We were told they were killed in a training accident!"

"No, they're all fine. Look, we have to help when the team gets back to the ship. I swear to you we'll be back in touch the second we can. Trust me and don't do anything!"

The elf with the mustache shouted, "Matt! I need you! Get in the green station to monitor those troops!"

"Yes, sir! Love you, Mom!" Matt left his father's side and Sam saw Colleen gasp.

"We will see you soon, I swear!" Sam blew a kiss to his wife's tear-stained face before breaking the connection.

* * *

Pidge sliced the door in two with her blade and Hunk pushed the pieces apart. The four of them poured in and looked around, seeing no one else in the room but Keith, unconscious and strapped down on a gurney. His armor and helmet were piled on a table against the wall.

They all deactivated their cloaking devices. Lance moved to Keith's side and started pulling electrodes off him. He looked around for something to cut the straps, flashing back to a previous rescue with Shiro and Keith's places reversed.

Pidge went to the laptop and began tapping keys, scanning the resulting information. "Ugh, this isn't good. They knew he wasn't telling them everything about what happened, so they drugged him to try and get more. But for some reason Keith was able to resist normal doses and they doubled the prescribed amount and they still couldn't get anything out of him." She scrolled down. "Same thing with the sedative. They poured three times the normal amount into his system, along with large amounts of adrenaline trying to wake him from that. It's a quiznaking mess!" She paused, her eyes narrowing on something flagged in a blood test result.

In the distance, an alarm began to blare. They all heard Allura's voice as she monitored the movement of the garrison troops. "At least two squadrons are coming, from opposite sides, toward your location. You need to hurry!"

Shiro glanced out, seeing the empty hallway but hearing running feet in the distance. "Any ideas on getting out of here without having to attack anyone else?"

Lance looked up. "L5 is one story, isn't it?"

Hunk grinned. "I think you're right." He held up his bayard and aimed the resulting cannon at the ceiling, adjusting its firepower to full. "Take cover!"

Pidge slapped the laptop shut and grabbed it. Everyone dove under a table or counter, with Shiro lowering the gurney and pulling Keith to shelter behind him. Hunk fired twice and retreated behind a cabinet to avoid the resulting rain of debris. Sunshine streamed in through the ragged hole left in the roof.

Shiro used his cybernetic hand to rip away the straps holding Keith down and heaved him up in his arms. "Allura, we're coming up. We may need covering fire."

Pidge scooped up armfuls of Keith's armor, dropping everything on the gurney with the laptop and pulling up the cover around it all to use as an improvised pack. Lance summoned his own rifle and brought it back to full power.

Shiro looked around to make sure everyone was ready. "All right, team, let's move."

Hunk activated his jet pack and rose first, ready to fire. Shiro followed with Keith. Pidge stayed close, carrying Keith's belongings, and Lance took the rear.

As they started flying toward the Castle, the troops outside began to point and mill around. Lance tried a few careful shots near larger groups, hoping to confuse or scare them without hurting anyone. Allura added a warning strike from the ship, which seemed to change someone's mind.

"Quiznak! Incoming!" Lance began firing more frantically as someone had decided to aim shells toward them. Hunk joined him and they shot at the larger projectiles. Thin energy bolts erupted from the Castle, pinpointing launchers one by one with care, sacrificing quick neutralization for minimal casualties.

"Pidge, scatter!" Shiro cried as he tried to focus on getting to safety and trust his teammates behind him.

"No way!" she shouted back, maneuvering in front of him and bringing up her shield in order to protect Keith. A shell that the others had missed exploded some fifteen meters from them, rocking them and slowing their ascent.

Pidge saw the next missed shell behind Shiro, coming straight at him, and tried to move her shield over his shoulder to defend him. She deflected it, but as it careened away it exploded. Shrapnel lodged in Shiro's jetpack, knocking out one thruster and throwing him off balance. He was losing his grip on Keith and Pidge tried to help him while hanging onto her burden…

And an enormous roar sounded as the Red Lion streaked toward them. It neatly nipped and suddenly all three of them were sprawled on the ramp that formed the Lion's tongue, safe inside the jaws. Shiro and Pidge yelled and grabbed for purchase as the head snapped around so the Lion could collect Lance and Hunk. With all five of them inside and protected, the Red Lion made for its hangar.

* * *

Red felt the physical contact with her Paladin as he slid from Shiro's grasp across the ramp and their connection snapped to full strength like two powerful magnets joining…

…the link he was following exploded into flame-like light around him, driving the darkness back as it surrounded him…

 _RED?_

 ** _I have you, my Paladin!_**

* * *

The Red Lion landed in its bay and lowered its head so the Paladins could exit. The restored connection sang through her, from nose to tail. The other Lions sent their relief and joy to her and Black suggested that Blue should return from her escapade.

Blue agreed, but deliberately veered to the west for the return trip. There were so many more population bases to buzz in that direction…

Black gave a mental sigh. Her Paladin was definitely rubbing off on Blue.

* * *

Iverson burst into the communications center and unceremoniously dumped the guard monitoring the console from his chair into the floor. Entering his override code with quick jabs, he brought up access to the public address system.

"STAND DOWN! ALL UNITS STAND DOWN! CEASE FIRE!"

He moved to the observatory glass just in time to see the red lion ship snatch up the armored figures and retreat to the giant white starship. A bubble with a grid pattern appeared around the entire structure. With no small targets left, the forces outside stopped firing.

Iverson turned back to the console. "There has got to be some way for us to talk to them! Jameson, get up and help me!"

* * *

The media outlets were going nuts. They had no official confirmation of anything yet: no issue of military information, no press conference or statement from the executive branch. A few mayors had spoken to the press about an alien ship passing overhead from close range. Social media was ablaze as more and more pictures and vids of the ship were posted and the recorded conversation between some princess of Altea and a couple of military personnel was rapidly climbing the list of the most shared links ever.

In a house in Varadero, a few blocks from the beach, a pair of sisters were glued to their tablets, their heads together as they refreshed their timelines and shared new updates with one another. Mina found a link claiming to be the recorded conversation that had been reported so widely and followed it, turning up the volume so Sara could hear. Their eyes widened at the fury in the woman's voice before an equally angry deep voice shot back.

 _"_ _Cadet Kogane is a member of our forces, one who disappeared in suspicious circumstances. His actions suggest treason against Earth. We need answers!"_

 _"_ _He's not a cadet, he's a civilian! You kicked him out for being a discipline problem! That's how I ended up fighter class!"_

The listeners' ears perked up at that.

 _"_ _You heard my Blue Paladin. You have no authority to detain a member of the Voltron team. Release him and send him to his ship, now!"_

 _"_ _Wait a minute. Is that Cadet McClain?"_

The girls looked at one another in shock. "Play that again!" Sara ordered.

Mina did, zeroing in on the familiar voice and looping it.

 _"_ _He's not a cadet, he's a civilian! You kicked him out for being a discipline problem! That's how I ended up fighter class!"_

 _"_ _He's not a cadet, he's a civilian! You kicked him out for being a discipline problem! That's how I ended up fighter class!"_

They bolted to their feet and ran to find their parents, planted in front of a television news bulletin that was currently outlining the path of the alien ship zooming across North America. Their voices ran over one another as they rushed to impart their news.

"Mamá! Papá! We heard Lance!"

"Lance isn't dead! He's on that ship!"

Seamus McClain rarely shouted at his girls, preferring to leave day-to-day discipline to his quick-spoken wife. But faced with the shattering news that aliens did exist and possibly were not friendly and then two screaming girls, he yelled, "Stop, both of you!"

The girls fell silent and shared a look before they nodded. Sara dove for the television remote and muted it while Mina refreshed the browser to play the recording from the beginning:

 _"_ _I am Princess Allura of the planet Altea. I am here to reclaim my Paladin and his ship, the Red Lion._ _ **Where is he?**_ _"_

A lion's roar sounded in the background.

 _"_ _You imprisoned him?_ _ **You drugged him?**_ _How dare you! Release him at once or face the consequences!"_

 _"_ _Cadet Kogane is a member of our forces, one who disappeared in suspicious circumstances. His actions suggest treason against Earth. We need answers!"_

 _"_ _He's not a cadet, he's a civilian! You kicked him out for being a discipline problem! That's how I ended up fighter class!"_

 _"_ _You heard my Blue Paladin. You have no authority to detain a member of the Voltron team. Release him and send him to his ship, now!"_

 _"_ _Wait a minute. Is that Cadet McClain?"_

 _"_ _Identify yourself."_

 _"_ _I'm Commander Iverson. I'm the one who convinced Keith to come out and talk to us. Then Earthforce chose to double-cross me and took him. He's being held in the medwing, section L5, under heavy guard. They've begun the process of transferring him to another facility."_

 _"_ _Iverson, I'll see you court-martialed for this!"_

 _"_ _The hell you will, Baker! You were one of Darzi's people, weren't you? He's not here now to back you up!"_

 _"_ _Enough! For the final time, release my Red Paladin and allow him to return to his ship!"_

 _"_ _Negative. You have no rights to an Earth civilian."_

 _"_ _Paladins, retrieve your missing comrade. Try not to hurt too many of them in the process."_

Rosa Salguero McClain fell to her knees, grabbing for her husband's hand. "My god…that was him! That was Lance!"

McClain grabbed his phone to try and dial someone, then hesitated as he realized the only people who could verify their son's whereabouts were still up to their ears in dealing with the larger situation.

His wife, however, did not hesitate. She got to her feet and retrieved her own phone to open a vid call.

McClain blinked as the tearstained face of Colleen Holt appeared on the screen. "Rosa, I was trying to decide whether to call or not." She was wiping her eyes but smiling.

"Then you've heard the recording? You were right. Lance is alive and I am so, so sorry for not listening to you."

"Recording? No. Sam contacted me. They're all alive! Him and Matt, Katie and Shiro, your Lance…they're all alive!"

* * *

Shiro carried Keith straight to the cryo-healing room, Pidge at his heels with the laptop from the medlab, and found Allura there first. She gasped at Keith's limp body and Shiro hastened to reassure her as he knelt on the floor and rested, propping Keith against him.

"It's all right, Princess. A little time in one of the cryo-pods to flush the drugs out of his system and he'll be just fine."

Pidge set the laptop on the center console and opened it. "I just need a few minutes to break a password and get these two machines talking to one another. Then we should have a record of exactly what they did to Keith. That will tell the cryo-pod just what he needs."

"I hope you're right." Allura crouched beside Shiro and reached out to touch Keith's face. She gasped and pulled her hand back as if burned.

"Princess? What is it?"

She looked at her hand, puzzled and a bit frightened. Slowly she reached out and took Keith's hand, her brow wrinkled in concentration. Shiro inhaled sharply and Pidge's eyes widened, seeing their joined hands start to glow. It was like the glow that had enveloped the Balmera when the princess had directed the rebirth process.

"What is it?" he repeated.

"He's…he's practically bursting with energy! It's as if he's been dipped in pure Quintessence!"

Pidge frowned at that. "How could that have—"

"Princess! We need you in the control room now! Someone from Earth is trying to hail us!"

Shiro jumped to his feet. "Let's get Keith into a cryo-pod and go."

Allura shook her head. "I can't leave him! I don't know that a pod can deal with that energy! Perhaps I can—"

"You have to go, Allura! We have to get both sides talking if we're ever going to sort out this mess!"

Pidge let out a satisfied sigh as she got the two machines linked. The first item that popped up on the Altean screen was the blood test and she glanced hurriedly at Allura before adjusting the screen to hide it. "Look, I'll stay with Keith. He's stable and obviously not going to get any worse now that he's with us and not being pumped full of drugs. Maybe let some of this energy dissipate before trying the cryo-pod. When you get back I might have some answers and we can let the pod do its job."

Both of them stared at her and Allura voiced the question. "Why you?"

"Because part of the conversation is almost certainly going to involve us and our families and how long we've been gone. I'm not needed since my dad and brother are already here and they can contact Mom as soon as there's a chance to."

"They already have," Allura replied faintly. "Coran helped them."

"There you go, then. I'll take care of Keith. You go diplomat us out of this mess."

* * *

Hunk and Lance entered the control room to find Shiro and Allura in a heated debate, with the Holts to one side and Coran to the other, looking uncomfortable. A signal for incoming contact beeped in the background.

And then they registered Allura's appearance. She looked like Shiro's sister, from the dark hair and eyes to the pale gold of her skin…and round ears.

"It's what we always do!" Allura shouted. "We blend in!"

"You can't do that this time! If you make even one slip and they realize you presented a false front, any hope of negotiations will vanish! If there's one thing our military hates, it's being lied to!"

"Oh, that's rich coming from them! They lied to your people about what happened to you!"

Suddenly Matt stepped forward. "Um…I think the point is moot. When we contacted my mom, she could see you two in the background. She already saw you were different."

Allura turned on him with a glare as Shiro gave her a snarky smile of triumph. "Trust me on this, Allura. Change back to yourself before you open that channel."

She huffed, but closed her eyes. Her hair faded, her skin darkened, and her ears stretched back to their usual pointed shape. When she opened her eyes, they were back to the usual brilliant sky blue. "Happy now?"

"Well, not exactly, but it's one less thing to worry about."

Allura turned to Coran. "All right, open the channel."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

Giving a particular shout-out to **Rangergirl3** – after reading the latest installment of her "Lost Paladins" series with all the Keith and all the Pidge, one thread to this chapter just took off and started running and I don't know when it's gonna stop. And after you read this fic/chapter, give yourself a few days' treat and go read her stuff – it's fabulous and full of solid OCs and world building, great character interactions, plenty of hurt balanced by plenty of comfort, and all the nerdy references you could want.

* * *

Pidge set up the laptop to transfer the rest of its files to the Altean database, locking the information under a personal password, then looked around for how to make Keith more comfortable until Allura could try to address the energy issue.

And then she kicked herself for sending the others out so fast. There was no way she could drag a bed or couch from another room here, and even then she couldn't lift Keith by herself. Everyone else was currently in the control room and she was not going to interrupt negotiations. Time to improvise.

She raided a storage cabinet of all the blankets meant for patients when they exited a cryo-pod. She piled a few together next to Keith for a makeshift mattress and shifted him onto it in stages. She added another pair of blankets to cover him, then considered. She pulled off most of the white-and-green pieces to her armor so she was left in the same black uniform as Keith, then sat cross-legged at his head. She lifted him up enough so his head rested in her lap, then activated the interface in the gauntlet that she still wore and laid her bayard on the floor next to her, ready to snatch up.

"Let's see what we can find from here…"

After a few tries, Pidge found a pathway into the Garrison's Internet connection. She began scanning the major news sites, her free hand absently running through Keith's hair as she read.

* * *

"What do we have, Coran?"

"It seems to be a voice message only. I think we would need Pidge to instruct them on establishing visual contact, since she's familiar with their capability."

Allura shook her head. "She's watching over Keith right now. We'll make do." In her peripheral vision, she noticed Hunk and Matt Holt put their heads together over Pidge's station. She drew a deep breath and nodded at her adviser, who touched a control and gave her the thumb-up gesture she had seen the Paladins use.

"This is Princess Allura of Altea. To whom am I speaking?"

"I'm Commander Iverson, head of Galaxy Garrison."

 _He was the one trying to open communications with Keith. He told us where to find him._

Before she could answer, Iverson continued. "Please, is Cadet Kogane—Keith, is he safe?"

Allura the princess felt her anger loosen at that. This man sounded genuinely concerned. But Allura the leader of the universe's only known resistance to Zarkon replied.

"Why would you think he'd be safer with us than with you? Aren't we the aliens here?"

Iverson hesitated very briefly, then spoke. "Because even though he left the Garrison early, between his time here and what Captain Shirogane would say about him, I know something about Keith. He does not give his trust lightly and you people obviously earned it. His very first thought was returning to you. He wanted to give us information about some threat called the Galra and communicate with the other cadets' families, but he never once indicated any desire to stay here."

Allura glanced at Shiro, who nodded at her.

"He is safe enough, though he will need medical attention from the drugs you poured into him." Allura's tone turned sharp.

"I have the list that Darzi and Blackwell used—"

"Unnecessary. We have that information."

That seemed to stun Iverson and Allura did not volunteer how they knew. She continued, "Those names, have those people been punished yet for their assault?"

"They are being held while we try and sort out exactly what happened. Darzi will face a court martial at the very least."

"I will tell you now. We have ways of monitoring the outcome of any inquiry you have, and if we are not satisfied with his punishment, we can and will enact our own retribution against him."

* * *

Benítez had finally made it back to the Garrison, having been forced to land several miles away rather than risk becoming a target for the very large and very unknown space vessel that was hovering over the desert. She entered the communication center just in time to hear a female voice coldly announce that she was in possession of information that should not have been available to anyone besides the command staff. When that same voice followed up with threats, she inhaled sharply.

"This is General Benítez of Earthforce. Who are you to make that kind of threat?"

"I am Princess Allura, the guardian of the Voltron Force, and I _will_ protect my Paladins in every way possible. Your people could have killed my Red Paladin with their insistence on medically coercing information from him. There is no threat. I _promise_ that if your punishment does not fit this Darzi's crimes, we will rectify the situation."

* * *

Shiro touched her arm gently and and she paused to look at him, a bit annoyed that he had stopped her building up into a really satisfying rant.

He waved at Coran and made a slashing motion across his throat. Coran looked puzzled for a moment, then realized what Shiro was asking and adjusted the controls. "All right, the connection is muted for the moment."

Shiro turned and pointed to Pidge's station. Matt looked up from his display. "We have visual contact ready if you want it – it's going to pop up on one of their security camera viewscreens when I initiate."

Allura smiled a little at that. Pidge's brother was proving to be quite useful. "Yes, please." She waved a hand to bring up the proper viewer.

Shiro moved to stand next to her and waved at Hunk and Lance. "Come on, guys, united front. Sam, Matt, will you join us at my signal?"

Both Holts nodded and Shiro turned to Coran. "Ready to reopen the channel."

The screen wavered and then showed two people. Allura looked them over and guessed that the balding one with only one good eye was the adult male, Iverson, and that the one with dark hair pulled back from her face was the general.

Iverson jumped as he focused on the sudden visual. "Shirogane?"

"Commander."

Iverson was now looking at Lance and Hunk. "I see Garrett and McClain. Where's Gunderson? Is he all right?"

Lance snorted at that, but Shiro gave him a _look_ and he got himself under control.

"The person in question is safe and currently looking after Keith. But there is no 'Pidge Gunderson'. That person assumed a false identity to infiltrate the Garrison and look for more information on why her family disappeared."

As they watched, the penny dropped and Iverson breathed, "Katie Holt."

Shiro nodded once and waved to the waiting pair. "And as you can see, she succeeded where you failed."

Sam and Matt stepped forward and Sam gave a resigned smile. "Hello, Mitch."

* * *

After a few minutes of shared crying from joy, Rosa pulled herself together. "I'll contact Iolana to let her know about Hunk…oh, lord, should I wait? I need to figure out the time difference—"

Colleen interrupted, her own emotional storms subsiding as her natural inclination to organize took over. "Go ahead and call now. Even if you wake her, you're giving her good news. I'll contact Shiro's family."

"And the Garrison? When do we contact them?"

"We don't. Sam was very insistent on that. They lied and covered up the fact that the Kerberos team was kidnapped by aliens. They lied again when our children disappeared. Sam said he'd contact me as soon as they handled their immediate crisis and sort out when and how to meet."

"What do we do if they contact us first? Or reporters?"

Colleen thought a moment. "We have plausible deniability with that audio being spread about everywhere. Deny everything but that you know Lance is alive until we have some guidance from Sam."

Rosa glanced at Seamus and the girls, all listening closely. He nodded at her. She replied, "All right. We stay in touch and contact the others as soon as anyone hears anything."

* * *

His surroundings brightened and shifted away from Red's soothing aura. For a moment it was as if he were surrounded by the gleaming white and soft blue that characterized the Castle. Then everything came into focus, showing the room where he was being held prisoner.

He struggled uselessly against bindings that held him down as the door opened. Darzi was coming back again…Darzi would never stop trying to wring every last bit of information from him.

 _Red! Red, where are you?_

And then the figure moved from the door to tower over him. A scarred, purple face grinned at him, violet eyes shining in glee at his helplessness. The figure lifted clawed hands and brought them down, sealing off his air. He tried to tell himself it was just a dream. And then he felt something warm on his face.

"Keith! Wake up! It's okay!"

He tried with everything he had to fight the hands that were suffocating him. To his surprise, his arms moved and he connected with the form hovering above him.

"Ow, _dammit,_ Keith! Wake up! You're dreaming! Wake up!"

 ** _Wake up, my Paladin!_**

Zarkon's face shifted, becoming rounder and pale and…

"Pidge?"

Her face was upside down and it took him a moment to realize he was looking up at her from her lap. Her glasses were askew. She straightened them and smoothed his hair back from his face.

"Yeah. You with me?"

"Where…where are we?"

 ** _Home, my Paladin._**

"We're safe in the Castle. We broke you out of the Garrison."

He felt locked muscles begin to relax at the knowledge that he was out of that blasted room, out of Darzi's hands. But the second the tension in his body eased, sensation flooded in. Pain hammered his skull and shot down his neck into his shoulders. His mouth and throat felt full of sand. He could feel sore points on his arms from where needles had been inserted and his skin itched with the need for a thorough shower. The only things that felt good were Red purring in his mind and Pidge combing through his hair with her fingers.

She shifted underneath him. "Here, can you sit up a second?"

Keith was able to prop himself on his elbows long enough for her to bring a stack of folded blankets over. But sitting up made his head swim and he fell back on the improvised pillow. Pidge frowned at that. "Are you dizzy?"

He nodded.

"Headache? Dry mouth?"

"Yeah."

She took his hand and pinched the back of it briefly, her eyes narrowing when it took several seconds for the skin to smooth out again. "You're dehydrated. Those bastards." She went to a cabinet and pulled out a few pouches; he recognized them as the portable drinks Coran gave them when they were training. She opened one and handed it to him. "Slowly. If you suck it down there's every chance you'll throw it back up."

"Yes, Mom."

Pidge rolled her eyes, but grinned at him. Keith made himself sip the liquid, rather than gulp as he wanted to do the second it hit his parched throat.

She snagged a laptop from its perch on the console and settled close beside him. Now that the light showed her face fully, he could see a red mark on her face that appeared set to bruise deeply. He flashed back to the dream, striking out against Zarkon's image, and realized what he had done.

He reached up but she caught his hand before he could touch her.

"God, Pidge, I'm sorry—"

She squeezed his hand and laid it back on his chest. "It's okay, I'm just glad you're awake and coherent. Everyone's been worried sick, I'm still so mad that the Garrison did this to you!"

"Earthforce. Not the Garrison."

"What?"

"It was someone in Earthforce that gave me all this trouble. I remember Iverson saying something about them pulling rank."

"Oh." Several expressions flitted across Pidge's face as she assimilated the new information. She looked back down at the laptop and scrolled to something, then brought up a screen from her gauntlet and poked at it.

"That's not yours."

"No, I stole it when we went in to rescue you. We needed the medical information to tell the cryo-pod what to fix, given that Altean medicine might not recognize Earth drugs."

Keith looked around at the makeshift bed, his armor piled to one side. "So, why am I not currently imitating a popsicle, then?"

"I wish you hadn't said 'popsicle'. I've been reading everything about what's been going on—there were too many photos and vids for Earthforce to hope to contain the news—and the food ads are killing me."

"Back to the point, Hunk…"

She made a face at him. "Anyway, Allura was afraid to use a pod because somehow your body is acting like a supercharged battery full of that Quintessence stuff the Galra were processing at that hub. We have no idea how—"

She broke off, seeing Keith's expression change.

"You have an idea how that happened."

"Yeah, but go on."

"So she wasn't sure that the pod would be able to manage the excess energy you currently have inside you. I think she might want to try something like what we saw her doing with the Balmera, siphoning it off or redirecting it or something."

Keith nodded thoughtfully at that.

"I think that this Quintessence issue is part of the reason you had such a high resistance to their drugs." Something on the screen from her gauntlet beeped and she poked it, studying something on it.

"What's that?" Keith finished the last of the drink.

Pidge swapped the empty pouch for a new one. "Tell you later. Anything feeling better?" She started to lay a hand on his forehead to see if he felt feverish, but he instinctively jerked from her hand. She saw his pulse jump in his throat and his eyes dilate.

"All right, what is it?"

"What's what?" he deflected, willing himself to calm his racing heartbeat. Red rumbled in his head, trying to soothe him even as her own anger spiked.

"Why are you so jumpy about me touching your face? First you slugged me one and now you avoid me checking your temperature."

He looked down and closed his eyes, searching for a way to tell her without having to relive those terror-filled moments of Darzi's hands clamped across his face, the inability to defend himself, the struggle to breathe.

 _Too late._

He reached for her hand and pressed it to his cheek, deliberately trying to break the association. Inhaling deeply, he opened his eyes. "I think it was the second or third time they tried a truth serum on me. The lieutenant general that was in charge arranged to take out the medtech that was in the room and brought his own person, so he could use as much of the amo-whatever as he wanted. I yelled, trying to get anyone's attention, and he…he tried to stop me. But he covered my nose and mouth so tightly I couldn't breathe. And then he seemed to lose it. If the medtech with him hadn't stopped him, he'd've killed me." He closed his eyes again and focused on her hand, which had begun to tremble.

* * *

 ** _My sister! Is this true?_**

Red growled dangerously in reply to Green's question. **_Yes._**

 ** _And you left the place standing?_**

 ** _If the other had not stopped the attack, I would have razed it to the ground._**

 ** _And I would help you!_**

* * *

Pidge caressed his cheek and withdrew her hand. Keith opened his eyes and looked, seeing her visibly trying to control a growing rage.

Glints of gold swirled in her brown eyes.

* * *

Allura watched the reactions closely. Iverson seemed stunned at the appearance of the Holts while Benítez immediately frowned.

Iverson was the first to speak. "Sam…you're alive. You're all alive!"

"We are. Matt owes his life to Shiro and we owe our freedom to Lance and the rest of the Voltron Force. But you? You lied about what happened to us. You put out a false story blaming Shiro for an accident that never happened!"

Benítez snapped, "That was the only thing we could do! If we'd told the public there were signs of you all being taken by some alien force, we'd have uncontrollable panic!"

"And yet when I returned, you didn't listen to me, either." Shiro's voice was hard and cold, and Allura couldn't stop herself from glancing at him worriedly.

"If those cadets hadn't interfered—"

"If they hadn't, Earth would be under the control of the Galra Empire right now. We were the ones in the Blue Lion when it led the warship away."

That seemed to stop the general. She took a deep breath before speaking again. "We're not getting anywhere like this. What is it that you want?"

Allura stepped forward slightly. "We are willing to give you intelligence on the Galra. We will decide on a few alterations to your technology that will permit scans at longer ranges than you currently have. In exchange, you will guarantee safe passage so my Paladins can see their families and establish their own secure methods of communication with them. Finally, we will establish multiple layers of counter-signs so that in case the Galra do approach your system you will be able to alert us through the Paladins' families."

Iverson and Benítez looked at one another and Allura sensed that they might have a starting point. She schooled her face to prevent a smile of triumph from showing.

The floor of the Castle shook under her feet.

Startled, she looked around and saw similar confusion on the Paladins' faces. Then she realized what was happening when twin roars tore through the halls, echoing from the bays to the control room.

Each of the Paladins had what she would call the 'listening' face as a child: that open, concentrating expression which meant that the Lions were communicating with their pilots. Then all three of them—Shiro, Lance, and Hunk—suddenly looked furious. Before everyone's eyes, Shiro's right hand began to glow as it curled into a fist.

Allura jumped when a new comm screen popped up, showing Pidge with a truly terrifying snarl on her face, her eyes seeming to glow in anger.

"Princess, has Earthforce dealt with that murderer Darzi?"

"Murderer?" Allura spun back to the two humans on the other screen.

Iverson looked shocked, then angry. He turned on the general. "Is that what Perkins was talking about? Did Darzi actually assault him?"

Benítez slumped her shoulders slightly.

Allura's eyes widened at the unspoken admission. "Pidge, what are you talking about?"

"Keith just told me! Darzi tried to kill him!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

* * *

"Pidge? Pidge!" Keith grabbed for her hands, hoping to calm her down. The comm panel winked out as he brushed against her gauntlet. Seeing her eyes morph further into shimmering gold scared him. "It's all right! I'm okay!"

 **"** **They must be punished!"** Her voice echoed on itself, the higher impassioned tones of Pidge and the deep growls of a lion. She was breathing so quickly, almost panting.

 _"_ _Katie!"_ Keith pushed himself up, fighting through the pain and exhaustion. "Katie, calm down!" He put a hand to either side of her face, trying to get her to see him instead of looking through him. "Please!"

* * *

She could see the hangar walls and longed to claw her way out and descend upon the base below. Someone had nearly taken Red's Paladin from her _again_. The action _must_ be answered!

She could also see Keith, frightened at what was happening to her. But he was Keith and not-Keith at the same time, fighting for the same space in her vision. She saw her friend and a being of white light so intense it was a wonder he didn't burn up from the inside. The part of her that was still Pidge now understood exactly why Allura had hesitated about the cryo-pods.

But the greater part, the growing part surrounding her awareness in an emerald haze, was screaming through her head in fury and she wasn't sure if she could control it.

She wasn't sure she wanted to.

* * *

 ** _Talk to Green! Talk her down!_**

At first Keith had no idea what Red meant, then it clicked. Pidge and Green were experiencing the same integration that he and Red had. For him, the connection had been interrupted by a massive dose of sedatives and while effective, it had been traumatic and damaging. He would never do that to Pidge by choice. Right now his only options were his words and his presence. He hoped they would be enough.

He gripped her face harder, making those glittering amber eyes look only at him. "Green, it didn't happen. I'm alive. I'm here. I am here."

 **"** **It nearly ended my sister to lose her Paladin to deceit and murder before! It cannot happen again!"**

"I understand that! And I can't promise that one of us won't get killed—we're fighting a war! But we have to trust each other if we're going to have any chance of winning! Let her go, don't scare her like this!"

Finally, the eyes were focused on him.

 **"** **Did my sister scare you when you merged?"**

"Of course she did! She wanted to burn the entire Garrison to the ground and hurt a lot of innocent people in the process! But she held it together! And if _she_ can hold it together, so can you! Please, let Pidge go!"

The expression on Pidge's face lost some of its wrath and she stared. Keith hoped he wasn't imagining things, but the amber shine in her eyes seemed to be dimming.

 **"** **That…was a low blow, Paladin. Take care of my cub…she values you."**

As Pidge's eyes faded to normal, they rolled up and she went limp. Keith managed to pull her to him as he fell back, his own strength giving out. He held her close and began to relax as her breathing grew steady. He plucked her glasses from her face and laid them on the discarded laptop.

 ** _I agree with my sister. That was a low blow._**

Keith gave a soft chuckle at the aggrieved tone from Red. _Worked, didn't it?_

 ** _Yes, it did. I am…I am proud of you, my Paladin._**

 _Not your cub?_

 ** _Always my cub._**

* * *

Allura took a step back from Shiro. The Black Paladin seemed to be carrying a star in his right hand, the intense light reflecting from his armor and across his face. She had seen that hand in action, on board a Galra ship, and knew its power.

"Shiro? Shiro! What is it?" Torn between trying to calm him or backing away from his fearsome display, Allura didn't notice that Pidge's comm screen went down.

His reply was not to her but to the screen. His voice, cold and flat, cut across Iverson as he continued to berate Benítez. "General, I am pausing these negotiations. We'll be in touch with Commander Iverson when we've calmed down." He turned away and Coran cut the transmission.

All three paladins were visibly trying to calm themselves. The Holts were looking at Shiro with wide eyes as he brought up the cybernetic implant and concentrated on it. The light began to dim and Allura moved to his side.

"What is it? What did Pidge mean about someone trying to kill Keith?"

"Pidge!" Lance and Hunk spoke together and turned and ran from the room.

Shiro took a shuddering breath. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have undercut your authority like that, but I wasn't sure if I could control myself if I kept looking at them…at the general. Red shared with the other Lions at the same time that Keith told Pidge what happened to him. They—the Lions-they're all extremely angry at the moment. Seems they're reliving some old, very bad memories of a paladin being killed by someone he should have been able to trust?"

Allura swallowed hard at that.

"Like a fellow paladin? The Black Lion's first Paladin?"

She looked down. "Yes, but let's speak of that another time. What about Keith?"

"This Darzi tried to prevent Keith from calling for help during one of the times he was forcing an interrogation with a truth serum. Red told us that it was only the intervention of a medtech that kept him from smothering Keith to death."

Allura inhaled sharply at that, fully understanding now why the paladins had reacted as they did. Anger would have been her first reaction as well if she had not been fearful of Shiro. Sharing the information calmed Shiro further and he reminded himself that his oldest friend was still with them. But Allura's expression hardened as she remembered something.

"I think I know what to do. I'll need you to ask the Black Lion for help. But it can wait a little." She turned to her adviser. "Coran, can you take the ship up and away from the planet for a bit? Somewhere nearby but out of their scanners' range? Show Matt how to do it while you're at it. Doctor, Shiro, with me."

* * *

Lance raced down the hallways, Hunk a few steps behind him. He wasn't sure what had happened to Pidge. His connection to Blue was a jumble of emotions: rage at the attack on Keith and unease bordering on fear over something Green had done. Something that had happened sooner than expected.

He skidded into the cryo-healing room and yelled as a green crossbow bolt buried itself in the wall next to him.

"For the love of—don't scare me like that! What if I hadn't been able to adjust my aim?"

Lance could only stare as Keith tugged on the shimmering green line with one hand, trying to pull Pidge's bayard back. His other arm was around Pidge, cradling her to him.

Hunk appeared in the doorway and looked around with wide eyes before zeroing in on Keith and Pidge. "Is she okay? She looked ready to tear a dimensional hole in space to get at the Earthforce people."

Keith stopped trying to retract the bayard and set it next to him. "I think she will be. I hope. She's breathing normally and her heart rate has slowed down."

"What the quiznak happened? And since when do you use other people's bayards on your own teammates?" Lance was still highly offended that Keith had actually taken a shot at him.

"I used her bayard because mine and my knife are out of my reach over there. Feel free to fix that situation. And you're the one who came charging in here without warning!"

"We're in the _Castle of Lions,_ dude!"

"And where's Keith been for days, _dude?_ " Hunk's voice was mild, but the reproach was there. "I'd be surprised if he _weren't_ on a hair-trigger after everything he's been through."

Pidge stirred then, moaning slightly. She opened her eyes and frowned in confusion when she realized she was lying on Keith. "Um, what happened?"

"I'm not really sure, but it was like Green sort of took over for a few minutes. I think it happened with Red while I was Earthside."

"You were terrifying! Your eyes were turning gold!"

Pidge scowled at Lance's declaration. "I am going to have words with a certain Lion. That was not cool, just leaping all over my brain like that." Keith loosened his hold on her so she could sit up. Instead her expression turned mischievous and she tugged his arms back around her. "But I'll do it later. You are surprisingly comfy."

Hunk let out a laugh at that. Keith looked baffled for a moment, then decided to just go with it and tightened his arms around her.

Lance found himself shoved to the side from behind and yelled again. He immediately calmed down when he realized it was Dr. Holt, with Allura and Shiro following him.

"Katie? Is everything all right?" The doctor knelt down beside Pidge and Keith.

"Yeah, Dad, everything's okay for now. I need to have a talk with Green about boundaries, but I'm fine." She sat up and looked around for her glasses.

"Boundaries?" Allura looked confused.

Keith handed Pidge her glasses, but looked at the princess. "Yeah, what does merging with the Lions mean?"

Allura's jaw dropped. "What? Pidge merged with the Green Lion?"

"Yeah. And I think I did with Red, too."

She staggered and Shiro had to catch and steady her.

* * *

Benítez felt a wave of nausea as the image on the viewscreen disappeared. They had broken off negotiations. Shirogane had declared that they would contact the Garrison, not Earthforce, if they reopened communication. Shirogane had shown them that his alien prosthetic was indeed a weapon, a terrifying one. And while Kogane waking from the coma was good news, he had of course shared what had been done to him.

She ran through her options and decided. She turned to Iverson and spoke before he could start in on her again. "You heard him. Do what you have to in order to be ready to respond to him at a moment's notice. I am recalling Perkins as a witness and filing the paperwork within the hour to start a court-martial against Darzi. As that will be part of the public record, we have to prepare a statement for the press.

"Please let me know the moment you hear from them. We need to know if Kogane would be willing to testify."

Gathering the tatters of her authority, General Benítez left to enact her plan.

* * *

The girls established a private group chat on one of their social media networks and added everyone: their parents, Colleen Holt, Hunk's mom and aunt, and the Shiroganes. Not fifteen minutes later, Rosa began reporting the calls.

The media had finally started piecing together clues from the recorded conversation. They had found Keith Kogane, but he looked to be a dead end, with no relatives, a string of foster homes, and no other history besides the Garrison. The other name to go on was McClain. Rosa was fairly certain that someone would track down Iolana Garrett as soon as they thought to follow up on the other cadets listed as killed in training along with Lance. Whether Colleen would get any attention remained to be seen—no one appeared to have made any connection between the day's events and the Kerberos mission yet.

In the meantime, she fielded media calls and answered "no comment" every time as the rest of the family began texting and calling as they saw the news updates. Then they started arriving in what was rapidly becoming an impromptu family reunion. Seamus and the girls organized food and everyone hovered around the television and a few tablets, looking for the latest information.

* * *

Shiro held Allura up while she regained her balance. "I take it that you know what Keith is talking about and that it's…unexpected."

She nodded, still staring at Keith and Pidge. She was trying to gather her thoughts to explain as quickly and clearly as she could, but Pidge jumped in first.

"Allura, what do you need to do to help Keith in the Quintessence department? Can I help or do you want privacy?"

Shiro had not let go of Allura's arm and he felt her twitch. She clearly wasn't expecting Pidge to be so…normal…after this merging thing. But doing whatever was needed to get Keith into a cryo-pod and fully healed was his first priority. "Allura, what do you think?"

She bit her lip. "I…I'm not sure. The ceremony on the Balmera was the first time I ever manipulated Quintessence and it was on such a large scale. I think fewer distractions might be better?"

"That sounds sensible. So would you prefer me or Pidge as your lookout?"

Allura hesitated, but Keith replied instantly, "Shiro."

Pidge opened her mouth to protest, but her father was faster. "Come on, kiddo. I promised your mother we'd get back in touch as soon as you got your teammate back."

She turned to him, her expression brightening. "You talked to Mom?"

"Wait, you were able to talk to people on Earth? Can we do that?" Lance's eyes were as wide as saucers.

Shiro glanced at Sam, who instantly picked up on the unspoken message and waved his arms to start shooing the other paladins out. "Come on, all of you. Let's see if we're still close enough to Earth to get through."

Pidge groused a little, but was not about to turn away the chance to talk to her mother. She hopped to her feet and went over to her pile of armor to don it once more. "Allura, if you think the dehydration is a problem, make sure he drinks more before you start." She looked for her bayard and blinked, noticing for the first time that it was not where or how she had left it.

Keith gave a shrug that was only slightly apologetic. "Lance startled me."

She picked up the base and quickly retracted it, one eyebrow quirking up at the unfamiliar shape of the projectile. "No problem. When do I get to try your sword?"

"As soon as you can hold it up for more than thirty seconds at a time, squirt."

"Challenge accepted. Be gentle with him, Allura! I'm willing to bet it's his first time!" She ran after the others.

Shiro laughed, seeing Keith's instant blush and Allura's confusion. Keith looked up at him as he picked up a drink pouch and tried to cover his embarrassment.

"Was she always so…direct?"

"Oh, yes. She gave Matt grief from the time she could talk until he left for the Garrison. He told all kinds of stories on the way to Kerberos."

Keith grinned at that. "I want to hear some of them."

"Sure, but later. Allura?"

She moved to kneel at Keith's side, where Pidge had been sitting, and took a deep breath to center herself. She reached forward and took his hand. Keith's eyes widened as a gentle glow formed between them. "What…what is that?"

"Your body currently has far too much Quintessence in it. I don't quite understand why you aren't showing more symptoms other than perhaps the dehydration."

"Could Red be helping share the load?" Shiro offered as he moved to sit on Keith's other side.

"That's possible."

"Or the Quintessence could be the reason he was so resistant to the different drugs being used. Keith may have been using the excess to fight it."

"Also possible. But no matter the reason, there's still too much for safety's sake. Keith, I want you to stay still and try to relax as much as possible. I have no idea how this is going to feel for you. If it's painful, tell me immediately."

Keith nodded, finished the drink in his hand, and handed the empty pouch to Shiro. He closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths.

Allura also closed her eyes and laid her free hand on the floor next to her. Shiro had been going to ask about the process, but thinking back to the ritual on the Balmera, he remembered that she pulled energy from the Castle and somehow multiplied it to save the creature. So here she was taking Quintessence from Keith and feeding it back into the Castle.

As he watched, the faint glow from their joined hands began to spread through Allura. Once she was suffused with it, it began pooling around her and fading into the floor.

He turned his attention to Keith. It would be very like the Red Paladin to downplay it if the process was indeed painful, just to make things simpler for Allura. But to Shiro's surprise, it looked like Keith had dozed off.

Shiro could not remember the last time he had seen Keith looking so peaceful and relaxed. He concentrated, trying to commit the moment firmly in his memory. It might be a very long time before this happened again.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

 **Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

Got another rec, especially for those who like their Voltron stories without any romance and with plenty of Pidge. Check out "Though She Be But Little" by TheRedScreech for a delightful series of roughly-connected Pidge-centric stories!

* * *

The moment they entered the bridge, Lance shouted at Coran and Matt, who were bent over Coran's control panel. "Allura said we can contact our families! How do we do that?"

Coran looked at Matt. "Do you remember what to do?"

Matt grinned. "Yes, sir!"

"Lance, go to your station. Matt will help you."

Coran turned to Hunk. "How about you, Number Two?"

"What? I can talk to my mom?"

"Yes, we can initiate both links at the same time." Coran walked over to Hunk's station and pulled up his comm panel. "Do you have a number for reaching your mother's communication device?"

"Oh, quiznak." Hunk concentrated, trying to remember the number that he had programmed into his phone years ago and promptly forgotten. The phone that he had left sitting on the nightstand of his room at the Garrison because Lance was in such a hurry to sneak out that night. He had the entire periodic table at his mental fingertips, but couldn't remember his mom's number. "Does it have to be a number? We can do vid calls with email addresses."

"Hold on a tic… I need to access Number Five's alphabet converter…There! Enter your information here."

Hunk did so. On the other side of the bridge he could hear Lance going a mile a minute in Spanish. And then a video screen popped up on his panel, showing a round, dark face with graying hair.

" _Tin_ _ā_ _?_ It's me…"

"Tsuyoshi? _Lo'u atali'i?_ ' The woman looked away from the screen and screamed, "Nani! Nani!"

In the background, another woman responded, "What is it, Iolana?"

Hunk felt the tiniest bit of queasiness as the screen he was watching moved and spun, showing him his aunt. Her face lit up and she whooped in delight. "Yoshi! You're alive!"

"Of course I'm alive, _uso_ -Nani!" As he watched, the screen whipped back around and his aunt moved into view, sitting beside his mother. " _Tin_ _ā,_ I am really sorry I didn't call or anything. We've been on a bit of a trip through a wormhole to the other side of the universe where we ended up fighting an evil empire—"

"Two months!" Iolana snapped. "It's been almost two months—"

"Whoa, I had no idea. We've been so busy—"

"It's been two months and THEY TOLD US YOU WERE DEAD!"

"What?" Hunk's expression did a one-eighty from placating to baffled. "They told you we were dead?"

Coran had retreated to give Hunk some privacy, but his head snapped up at that. "Oh, dear. That's going to complicate things."

* * *

Matt entered the address for a vid call. As Lance waited for the call to connect, he tried to rehearse what to say to his parents. Disappearing off the face of the Earth in an alien ship for a few weeks was just a bit higher on the scale than hijacking his older brother's waverunner or getting caught trying to hide a camera in the girls' bathroom at school.

Finally, his mother picked up, not looking at the screen as she soothed a toddler in her arms—was that his niece Lydia? She had changed so much! A thread of disquiet ran through Lance's chest. How long had they been gone?

"Look, I don't know which network you're from, but you get the same answer as everyone else. No comment, no comment, no comment!"

" _Mamá?_ "

Her gaze sharpened on the screen and her eyes widened. The child in her arms laughed, reaching for the tablet, and shrieked, "Lan-Lan-Lan!"

Bedlam resulted. Faces crowded behind Rosa, all talking at once. Lance tried his best to keep up, not noticing when he switched to Spanish. Finally, as someone actually tried to snatch the tablet from her hand, his mother took control.

"Enough! Mina, take Lydia. All of you, stay here! Seamus, come with me!" As Lance watched, his mother dragged his father out of the family room and into…his old bedroom? But where was his stuff? The room looked nearly empty.

"Mom? Dad?"

They moved the tablet so he could see them both, and he felt his smile go watery. _Don't cry, don't cry, you're a Paladin of Voltron and Paladins do NOT cry!_

"Hello, _mi querido_. We are very glad to see that you're alive."

"Um, of course I'm alive? We just sort of got sidetracked when the Blue Lion took us through a wormhole across space."

His father shook his head. "You don't understand, son. The Garrison told us you'd been killed in a training accident. You, your friend Hunk, and the Gunderson boy. We were told it was an explosion, not enough left of the bodies to bury."

Lance stared at them, slack-jawed. It had never occurred to him that the Garrison might lie about their disappearance to their families. "Dad, Mom, I am so sorry! We would've tried to get in touch faster if we'd known!"

"We believe you, _hijo._ But you're back now. When can you come home?"

"Allura promised that she'd find a way for us to visit. I'll ask her as soon as she finishes healing Keith—"

His parents interrupted at the same time.

"Visit? You're not staying?"

"Healing him? Why does he need healing?"

* * *

Allura worked with a delicate touch. She was very afraid of hurting Keith, even though he seemed calm and still next to her. She pictured the Quintessence as a ribbon for the embroidery she did as a child, pulling it gently from Keith like an unwinding skein and threading it into the tapestry of the Castle.

As she extracted the excess energy from him, Allura realized that it had a…taste, for want of a better word. She didn't remember that from the Balmera. At the time she was too focused on actually controlling the transfer, taking the Quintessence from the Castle and conducting the ritual that would multiply it in large enough quantities to heal the enormous beast.

But she could feel Keith in this energy. It seemed to carry his scent, the light musk of his skin and the leather of his jacket. She could sense his self-imposed isolation, even within the team of Voltron, and his driving need to better his skills in order to protect the others. There was a dangerous edge to his Quintessence, a volatility that could slip from control in an instant. And yet the energy was warm and vibrant, welcoming like a good fire after a cold day. Allura knew that from now on she would be able to identify Keith's presence and find him if she concentrated just as she did with the Lions, though probably not from the same vast distances. She wondered briefly about a way to safely duplicate this process for the other Paladins.

Then something growled in her head, with a clear indication that she should stop.

 _But…we're not all the way to normal levels of Quintessence for humans yet._

The growl repeated, louder and more insistent. She realized it was the Red Lion.

Allura hesitated, unsure whether to trust her own instincts or the Lion's. When a second growl echoed the first— _Black_ —she relented. She closed off the flow of Quintessence and carefully disengaged her link with Keith. She opened her eyes to see him deeply asleep, his face open and serene. He looked startlingly younger without the perpetual frown that was his usual expression. She glanced at Shiro and caught her breath at the open affection, the caring in his face as he looked at his fellow Paladin. She wanted to ask, but didn't dare interrupt the moment.

He noticed that she no longer glowed and turned to her. "Did it work?"

She nodded. "He's stable now. The cryo-pod should be able to handle anything else."

"Let's get one ready, then."

* * *

Pidge wanted to babble about everything to her mother, about the adventures and dangers and joys and sorrows. Before Kerberos she had shared easily with her mom. A distance had grown between them immediately after the news of the failed mission broke, mostly due to her own insistence that it wasn't true, that Shiro would never, ever, have made a mistake so grave. It was only when she got into the Garrison's databases long enough to see the key video evidence from the probes showing absolutely no evidence of a crash that Colleen began to believe. The fact that Iverson banned Katie completely from the premises helped convince her. By the time Katie Holt hatched the plan to become Pidge Gunderson, her mom was completely on board.

But she could hear in the background that Lance and Hunk were having tough conversations with their families, learning that the three of them had been declared dead as well. She was not at all surprised at that. For one thing, she had searched their names and found the stories published in the last couple of months while keeping watch over Keith. For another, she already knew that the Garrison was capable of lying to cover up evidence of alien activity.

So Pidge kept things simple, assured her mother that she was good, and let her father have most of the conversation since they had been gone longer. She caught Matt's eye and gestured an invitation to swap places with him and he nodded.

"Mom, I'm going to step over and help Lance with his call so Matt can talk to you some more. Dad can keep me posted on when we can get together – it'll be easy between the cloaking device on my Lion and our personal camo units to slip in."

"You should let the other families know that – I'm getting texts from the McClain girls because Lance has already let it out that he's not planning to stay here."

"Will do. Love you, Mom. See you soon!"

Pidge moved to stand behind Lance. He was still going in Spanish, a language in which she only had novice skill, but she could tell that he was agitatedly trying to answer two questions at once.

When his parents spotted her, his mom caught her breath and switched to English. "Hello, darling!"

Mr. McClain nodded. "Gunderson, good to see you survived all this as well."

His wife elbowed him. "That's Katie Holt. I told you, Seamus. I told you what Colleen said about her daughter disguising herself as a boy so she could get into the Garrison."

"Oh, yes, I think you did. Katie, then. Are you looking forward to getting things back to normal?"

 _Oh, no wonder Lance was panicking._

"Well, not yet, sir. We have to go back and finish taking care of the Galra Empire."

"You…what? No, you're just kids!"

She shrugged. "We may be kids, but we're the ones that the Voltron Lions picked. Now, I can arrange for Lance to visit without the Garrison knowing, but it can only be a visit. We have to finish what we started."

She laid a hand on Lance's shoulder, and he straightened. "You heard her. The galaxy needs us, Dad. And the sooner we get back and take care of Zarkon, the sooner we can come home for good."

If Pidge's matter-of-fact rebuttal had surprised him, Seamus was floored by Lance's reply. Rosa laid a hand on his arm.

"Not now, Seamus. Lance, how much longer can you talk right now? You should say hello to Jeremy and your sisters and Abuelita while everyone is here."

Lance looked at Pidge. "I don't think we're in any hurry at the moment since we're waiting on Allura."

She nodded and moved the hand on his shoulder into a pat. _You got this?_

He nodded back. _I think so._

* * *

Iolana Garrett could handle things. She had been able to handle things all her life. She had handled the death of her father at a young age and growing up with her mother working two jobs while she went to school and took care of the house and her sister Konani. She had handled the desertion of her husband of less than a year, leaving her with a tiny boy to raise. She had handled the fact that her child was a gifted maker, always pulling his toys apart to see how they worked, by channeling some of that energy into cooking.

And she thought she was handling the death of her son in a training accident until she screamed at poor Colleen Holt over her insistence that the story was false. Colleen had not tried to contact her after that but the guilt ate at Iolana. Yes, it hurt to hear another mother cling to false hope, but was flinging facts in her face at top volume the way to handle that?

And now she was looking at a screen with her not-dead son and some red-haired fellow with strange ears and an enormous moustache. And after her initial shout of fury, she might be handling this. It was clear that her Yoshi had no idea of the Garrison's story about a training accident.

"I am going to fillet that commander when I get hold of him! Why would he lie to us?"

" _Tin_ _ā_ , it's okay! I mean, we did sort of disappear without a trace. And they didn't want people to panic about aliens being so close to our planet."

Coran tried to offer support. "And since then Hunk and the others have been very busy trying to help destroy an evil empire! But now that we know how to contact you all, he can stay in touch!"

Iolana peered at the pointy-eared man, trying to decide whether the greater affront was telling her that her child was a soldier in a war that wasn't his problem, or calling him that awful nickname that had stuck around since elementary school. But she could handle all this, especially if they now had a way to communicate regularly. The man was still talking.

"…and as soon as the princess finishes with our Red Paladin, we'll see if we can get Hunk down there for a visit with you!"

A princess? She could handle a princess if it meant actually getting to hug her son again.

* * *

With Keith safely in the cryo-pod, Allura and Shiro headed for the bridge. They paused in the doorway, seeing pairs of people at three stations, talking to comm screens.

"Is now a good time to contact this commander?" Allura asked in a low voice. "There's a comm panel in the meeting room."

Shiro shook his head. "I want them to stew for a while. I also want Keith back at a hundred percent and the chance for all of us to discuss the options before we tackle the Garrison."

"Then…do you want to contact your family?"

Shiro looked surprised at that. "I…they think I'm dead. And I'm not sure I could do that to them again. Be alive again but leave them and possibly get killed fighting Zarkon."

Allura inhaled sharply at that. She seized his arm and pulled him back down the corridor to the nearest room, which happened to be a lounging area with enormous gallery windows looking out. Shiro was reminded of how scarily strong Allura was.

She turned him to face her. "Shiro, whatever you decide, I will ultimately support it. But I want you to reconsider. I would give almost anything to be able to speak to my parents again. And I will never have it, not even second-hand." Tears formed in her clear-sky eyes at the memory of having to destroy the artificial intelligence of King Alfor. "Your family is something that is irreplaceable. You can surround yourselves with the best possible friends and come close, but it's not the same." She stepped forward and embraced him. He reflexively brought his arms up to return it.

She pressed her cheek to his face. "Think about it." She withdrew and left him alone in the lounge.

* * *

Colleen was still chatting with Matt, mainly listening as he rhapsodized over the Altean ship and its technology. She was already steeling herself for him to leave with Katie when they returned to wherever it was. She might get him to stay for a month or two if the Voltron Force promised to come back for him, but that would be it.

A notification flashed in the corner of her screen. It was from Daichi Shirogane: **The Garretts and McClains say their sons have made contact with them. We haven't heard from Takashi. Do you know what is happening?**

Colleen typed a swift reply: **He might be working with the princess. From what Matt and Katie have said, he is the leader of their team. I'll ask.**

She focused back on Matt. "Sweetheart, could you find out why Shiro hasn't called his parents yet? They really want to see him."

"Sure thing, Mom!" She watched as he jumped up and left her screen.

* * *

Matt nearly ran into the princess as he charged for the door. "Oh, sorry, your highness!" He tried to bow in passing and nearly fell. Allura steadied him and laughed lightly.

"No ceremony needed, Matt. 'Princess' will do and there's no need to bow unless it's a formal situation. Why the hurry?"

"I need to find Shiro. His parents are asking the other families why he hasn't gotten in touch yet."

"So they know he's alive?" Allura's face lit up.

"Oh, yeah! Mom told them right after we talked to her the first time, just like the others."

"That's wonderful news! Go, Shiro's in the viewing gallery down the hall!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading!

 _Tin_ _ā_ – Samoan for "mother"

 _Lo'u atali'I –_ Samoan for "my son"

 _uso_ -Nani – this is a mashup of the beginning of the Samoan phrase for "aunt" and her name

 _Mamá_ – Spanish for "mom"

 _mi querido_ – Spanish for "my darling" or "my dearest"

 _hijo_ – Spanish for "son"


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr, reblogging all the Voltron.

Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/giving kudos, and offering comments.

* * *

Matt ran into the room that Allura had indicated and nearly fell over as he stumbled down the unexpected stairs. The center of the viewing gallery with its long chaise-like seats and sofas was sunken. Shiro spun around at the unexpected noise and a sudden laugh bubbled up. "Oh, good grief, Matt. You still can't walk in a straight line, can you?"

Matt steadied himself and shook his head. "You know me, hands of silk, feet of banana peels."

That made them both laugh. It had been a running joke at the Garrison, how Cadet Holt could be so dexterous with measuring chemicals and assembling tiny bits of tech, yet have the gait of a drunken giraffe. It was one of the reasons Shiro had faked his bloodlust and taken his friend down when they were faced with a match against Myzax. He knew Matt would not have survived.

"What did you need?"

"You. Mom says your parents are asking for you."

"My parents? They think I'm dead."

"Nope. As soon as we told her that everyone was all right, Mom started getting in touch with the other families. She said your dad texted her, because Lance and Hunk are talking to their folks but they haven't heard from you."

"I…I…I was going to stay dead. I can't come back yet and I can't promise that I'll survive the war we're in. I didn't want to put them through that pain again."

"Come on, Shiro! Don't be a martyr! They've known ever since you chose space flight as your career that you could be killed. Yes, they thought you were dead and yes, I'm sure it hurt. But now they get you back, even if it's only for a while. Were you seriously going to waste that chance? Come on, I'll help you put through the call."

As they left the gallery, Shiro steered Matt away from the bridge and toward the meeting room Allura had mentioned. "This way. I'd like a bit of privacy for this."

* * *

Allura moved to her control station and quietly set an alert to tell her when the cycle for Keith's cryo-pod was fifteen _doboshes_ from ending. She listened to the babble of various conversations around her, noting something a little odd. She paid closer attention and heard how Lance and Hunk's voices had shifted just a little in tone and rhythm, and the words seemed to flow differently. She thought she might have heard Lance do this before, mainly when he got so frustrated with Keith that he was just spouting off what passed for profanity on their world.

Coran came up to her, a crease in between his brows. "Well, there's yet another mess to clean up. This Galaxy Garrison told everyone that the Paladins were killed in a training accident instead of last seen flying the Blue Lion through a wormhole. I expect we'll be needed to make at least one large public appearance to show that they are all alive and healthy."

Allura blew out a breath in frustration. She was just _done_ with these people. Once she had seized upon these five humans because they were all the Alteans had if they were going to form Voltron. Now she realized that fate had possibly given her the five (seven, if you counted the Holts) wisest and most sensible humans on the planet.

She heard shrieks and looked up. She could see a pair of presumably female humans on Lance's screen, jabbering excitedly with him in that slightly odd cadence. And then she realized Pidge, who was standing behind him, had a look of fierce concentration on her face.

Curious, Allura moved toward them. Pidge saw her coming and met her halfway. "Did you need something, Allura?"

"I just wondered why you were listening so intently to Lance's conversation. They're mostly screaming over seeing one another and trading bits of news about friends."

"How can you—they're speaking in Spanish. How can you understand them? Although," Pidge broke off and suddenly looked very disgusted with herself. "How the heck can _we_ understand each other? I can't believe I never stopped to think about it before, but we—the Paladins—have been speaking English the entire time. Oh, Lance sometimes goes off in Spanish, mainly when he's irritated, and I've heard Hunk sing to himself in Samoan when he's cooking. Shiro and Keith talk to each other in Japanese once in a while. But you two sound like English to us."

Allura stared at Pidge. She had gotten lost about halfway through. "I…I'm afraid I don't understand. Are you saying that the translators aren't working?"

"Translators? Is that what it is?"

"Yes, we have quite advanced technology to allow us to speak to other civilizations. It involves just a few tweaks to the language centers of our brains and it was the custom to have the process done a few months after birth. And of course the Castle does it for any new aliens who enter since it's quite painless."

"Wait, what? The Castle did something to our brains? When? Why didn't you ask us first?"

"It…it's part of the process in the automated identity scans."

Pidge's affronted expression faded and grew thoughtful. "I remember. That happened right after we set foot in the Castle the first time. But I can still hear the different languages when the guys use them."

"I don't understand. What do you mean by different languages? You're all from the same planet."

"Yeah, but there's over five thousand different languages used. It's standard at the Garrison that you know at least two languages going in and three when you graduate. I speak English and Norwegian—Dad's family came from Norway—and I was studying German at the Garrison and wanted to take a stab at Hindi at some point."

Allura was still trying to internalize the concept. Five thousand languages on one planet? How in all the stars in the sky could they possibly communicate?

As she attempted to pull her thoughts together, Pidge was still talking. "Maybe there's a difference in our brain structure—after all, sometimes you all use a word that just doesn't translate, like your time terms or 'quiznak'. Or maybe we still hear our languages because we know they exist and that's enough to defeat the translator…which I kind of hope isn't the case, because if I suddenly started hearing you speak nothing but Altean I'd be in big trouble…"

Pidge seemed to realize that Allura was struggling and trailed off. She tuned back in to Lance and listened for a moment, then looked back at Allura. "So, you really are hearing Lance go on like normal?"

"Not quite like normal. I still understand everything he says, but I'm hearing something different in his voice."

"Interesting. How do I sound to you right now?"

Allura tilted her head. "Yes, like that. What are you doing?"

"I'm speaking in Norwegian right now. And you can tell a difference even though it still all sounds Altean to you?"

Allura nodded.

"So how does the reverse work? You hear everything in Altean, but someone who hasn't been in the Castle yet talks to you? Do they hear you in their language?"

"I…I don't know how it works. It just does. Coran might know more about it. His grandfather was one of the people who helped design and build the Castle."

"Okay, I have got to research this. Because if there's a way for the five of us or seven of us to have a second language in common, one that the translators can't translate, we'd have our own secret code if we needed it!" She started laughing. "Can you imagine us facing off someone like Sendek again and shouting ' _skjerp deg_ ' at him?"

"Shouting what?"

Pidge stared at her befuddled expression and hooted in glee. "It didn't translate! Yes! Even if the translator goes both ways we can find words in our languages and use them as codes! I need to make a list! Thanks, Allura!"

And with that, Pidge raced out of the command center, leaving Allura feeling very, very lost.

* * *

Shiro brought up the comm panel in the meeting room and Matt quickly pulled up the necessary screen. "Email or number?"

Shiro rattled off his mother's number, slightly amazed that he remembered, and Matt entered it. As the screen showed a connection being attempted, Matt gave Shiro's shoulder a squeeze and retreated to the hallway.

The screen blinked into life, showing him a pair of faces. His breath caught in his throat for a moment. When did his mother's hair turn so gray? When did his father's face get so lined?

 _"Kaa-chan? Tou-chan?_ "

They also seemed stunned to look at him, and Shiro immediately realized why. If they looked so much older in less than two years, what must he look like to them? The shock of white hair falling over his forehead, the scar slashed across his face, the silver arm… If he, with months to adjust to his changes, still did a double-take when he saw his reflection, how much harder was it for them?

"Takashi? Is it really you?" His mother reached up and touched her screen, her eyes drinking in the sight of him.

He raised his flesh hand to meet hers, but didn't touch the panel as it would break the connection. "Yes, _kaa-chan_. It's really me."

"We are so grateful to know you're alive, Takashi. We missed you so much."

"I…I missed you, too. I missed you so much. I'm sorry I didn't try to get in touch with you before—"

"We do not blame you, son!" His father broke in. "We blame the Garrison for not listening to you! You have nothing to apologize for."

"But, you don't know what happened! You don't know any of it!"

His father's expression hardened. "Did you cause those aliens to take you and your crew?"

"No, of course not!"

"Did you deliberately lead those cadets into danger?"

"No! But—"

"Have you acted in any way less than your honor demands?"

Shiro recognized his father's tactic. Growing up, he would pose question after question, usually in order to ruthlessly unravel Shiro's attempts to get out of trouble or push him to examine a problem from a new angle.

In spite of himself, it was working again.

"No, _tou-chan_."

"Then you will stop apologizing and tell us the good parts version."

Shiro smiled in spite of himself at his father's reference to a favorite book. His thoughts leaped from his father reading the book to him…to him reading it to Keith during the all-too-short time that Keith was fostered with them.

"I found Keith. Or, more accurately, he found me."

His mother brought both hands to her mouth. "Oh, that's wonderful! Is he there? Can we speak to him?"

"He's…he is here, but he's currently in the—the infirmary, and needs to stay there a while longer. It seems that the Garrison tried to learn from its mistakes with me but Earthforce interfered. They shot him up with at least three different drugs trying to force information from him."

"That poor child! Will you bring him with you when you come? We haven't seen him since your graduation!"

Shiro's smile widened at that. "Yes, of course I will. I'll need to coordinate with Pidge. She can sneak us in and out to avoid Earthforce."

"And the media," his father added. "There's talk that Earthforce is finally going to issue a statement. I'm relieved that we kept our numbers private when we switched to mobile phones, although we have had to ignore several people knocking on our door."

Shiro growled at that. The last thing he wanted to have to deal with was trying to sneak around pushy reporters, or worse, hold a press conference. His stomach twisted at the thought.

* * *

Allura's monitor pinged to alert her that Keith would be through with the healing pod in a few minutes. She slipped out of the command center and ran for the cryo room. Once there, she paced, her eyes never leaving the screen that showed the progress of the procedure. The second the control panel turned blue to show the completed cycle, she rushed up and deactivated the pod.

Keith moaned and staggered forward. Allura grabbed and steadied him, "Keith? It's Allura. Can you hear me?"

"Princess?" He opened his eyes and focused on her. He straightened, gaining his balance, and she frowned slightly in puzzlement. Lance had taken several minutes to find his bearings when exiting the pod.

She focused and took his left hand, seeing the glow of Quintessence appear. It was very faint, at least. She still felt that he was carrying more than a human should, when compared to the other Paladins, but it was no longer dangerously high.

He looked at their hands and back at her. "Is everything all right?"

"I think so. How are you feeling?" She guided him to sit on the stairs leading from the floor to the pods.

"Ridiculously healthy. Do you know how long it's been?"

"You were in the cryo chamber for less than a _varga_."

"I mean, how long was I on Earth? I lost track pretty quickly."

"Over seventy-two of your hours, if I'm converting correctly. Why?"

"If you're right, in over four days I haven't eaten or slept properly, was in a massive battle, and then drugged repeatedly. And yet I feel fine after a quick nap in a cryo-pod."

"I believe that would be due to the excess Quintessence in your body. What I don't understand is how you came to absorb so much of it at once."

"Did Coran tell you what I found at that Galra hub?"

"No. We've been rather distracted trying to find all of you. Wait—Coran did say something about a facility there with a large amount of stored Quintessence?"

"Yeah. There was a massive room, lined floor to ceiling with these glass vats of a yellow substance. I was following somebody in robes and a hood. It did something to one of the vats that condensed the yellow stuff into a much smaller amount of purple liquid.

"I tried to steal some of the purple version. I had a container in my hands, but that hooded thing spotted me and took it back. I attacked and it started firing what looked like black lightning at me." He held up his right hand. "At one point the energy backlash between my sword and its firepower ate my armor off and burned my hand so badly it was useless."

Allura's eyes widened as she took in his unmarked skin. He'd fought a _Druid?_

"A few minutes later, one of the large containers, with the bright yellow Quintessence instead of the concentrated purple stuff, broke behind me. I got soaked through with it and suddenly my hand was back to normal. And other than being kidnapped and drugged by my own people, I feel fine. What is going on?"

"What I think is going on, is we now know how Zarkon has continued to live for ten thousand years." She tightened her grip on his hand. "My father was aware of experiments going on in certain civilizations. They tried to find a way to use Quintessence to heal people faster, then to enhance their strength. But people exposed to it more than a few times would suffer terrible symptoms of withdrawal. It was addictive."

Keith squeezed her hand reassuringly. "Well, I'll do my best to make sure I never fall into another vat of it. And it's our first sign of weakness in Zarkon, if he has to have this Quintessence to live."

* * *

The news anchor took one last swig of water from her bottle behind the desk and cleared her throat before the red light on the camera lit up and signaled that she was on the air. This was a long statement and it was important to get it right. History was about to happen.

The light went on and she looked into the camera with a serious but calm expression. Above all else, Earthforce had insisted that they do whatever it took to help prevent panic.

"Good afternoon. This is Rachel Hayes with the latest information surrounding the day's reports of UFO sightings and alien contact. Earthforce has given us the following statement, which I am about to read in full.

 _"_ _Earthforce wishes to address reports of an alien ship that was spotted in numerous locations of the western half of the United States. We can confirm that this ship is real and that it currently poses no threat to Earth. We repeat, there is currently no alien aggression toward the planet._

 _"_ _The ship, in the form of a blue lion, is part of a squadron called the Voltron Force. Again, they are not here to invade us. In fact, the various members in this force include five Earth citizens._

 _"_ _The chain of events as we know it begins with the Kerberos mission over a year ago. The reports of pilot error killing everyone aboard were false. The evidence instead pointed to the entire crew being taken by a hostile alien presence and our leadership at the time chose to report their deaths instead to prevent widespread panic in the general population and because we had no means to investigate further or try to rescue our people. But Doctor Samuel Holt, his son Matthew Holt, and Captain Takashi Shirogane are alive and have been freed from the aliens who abducted them._

 _"_ _The next event happened seven weeks ago. Captain Shirogane managed to escape his imprisonment and fly back to Earth in an alien spacecraft. When he crash-landed near Galaxy Garrison Headquarters, the Garrison and Earthforce followed protocol to quarantine him. However, a group of cadets from the Garrison witnessed the crash, investigated on their own, and managed to take Shirogane with them to an unknown location. Together, they discovered the presence of the blue lion ship deep in the desert. Our own investigations of the area since then show that the lion ship had been there, dormant, for thousands of years. But the group activated the ship and flew it away, leading a much larger hostile ship away at the same time. That hostile force has not returned to our solar system. There is currently no known threat to Earth._

 _"_ _Earthforce chose to report the group of cadets as deceased, as there was absolutely no trace of them once the lion ship was out of range. But we are now sharing the truth. Cadets Tsuyoshi Garrett, Pidge Gunderson, and Lance McClain are alive and have become part of this Voltron Force, along with Captain Shirogane and former Garrison cadet Keith Kogane._

 _"Three_ _days ago, Kogane crash-landed his own lion ship near Mount Rushmore. He willingly came to Galaxy Garrison to report, but an Earthforce official overreacted and treated Kogane as an enemy agent, including assaulting him. That official is facing court-martial for his actions. These are the circumstances referred to in the conversation that was accidentally broadcast over a wide range of media this morning._

 _"_ _We ask that the media and the public leave the families of the Voltron Force in peace for now as they reunite with their missing children. We will issue further information as soon as we have it. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay calm. There is no threat against Earth at this time."_

The anchor drew a deep breath, relieved at getting through the statement without stumbling. "As Earthforce stated, there is no threat to our planet at this time. Everyone should remain calm and wait for further information. Please tune in this evening for full coverage. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for reading! And thank you for indulging my nerdery for languages – I always question the use of universal translators in SF.

 _skjerp deg_ – Norwegian phrase that sort of translates to "You're about to make a complete fool of yourself."

 _kaa-chan_ – Japanese for "mom"

 _tou-chan_ – Japanese for "dad"


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in the sandbox provided by Dreamworks and the "Voltron" production team.

Reminder: I'm on Twitter under "avidbeader" if you're reading this as a guest and prefer seeing notifications there. I'm also on Tumblr, reblogging all the Voltron.

I do not know why this chapter fought me so hard, but it did. My brain is apparently wired more toward putting people in danger and rescuing them instead of fluffy reunions. But there will be one more round of reunions and then Allura gets to unleash her plans on an unsuspecting Garrison...

* * *

The first order of business was to pry Lance away from his station with fervent promises to his family that he would be back in touch very soon.

The second order of business was a swarm of hugs and back-slaps for Keith and assurances that yes, he was fine, thanks for getting him out of there.

The third order of business was Pidge and Matt updating them on the news. Earthforce's statement had caused some outbreaks of panic, especially in the areas that had witnessed the Blue Lion's flight. But between the lack of new sightings and a media barrage of insisting that yes, aliens were real but no, there was no attack or threat involved, things began to calm down a little.

Allura brought up the fourth order of business: their schedule.

"We need to return to Metrea's sector and help search for any more survivors and then to Arus to start the process of returning former prisoners to their homes where possible. And of course there's Zarkon. Honestly, I would leave right now if it were my decision. But I made a promise that you would all have the chance to see your families and I will not break it."

"The question is how to do it quickly." Shiro looked over at Pidge. "What would be faster? You playing designated driver for everyone in the Green Lion or modifying enough pods with the cloak?"

Pidge thought for a moment. "I think the pods, because Matt and Hunk can help me."

"All right. My suggestion is that we set up three pods with cloaks. The Holts can use the Green Lion. We all go down and spend tonight with our families, then regroup here in eighteen hours."

Allura nodded. "Coran and I will stay here and monitor things. We'll contact you if we hear anything from Arus."

"Wait, only three pods?" Lance looked around. "Keith, aren't you going to see your family?"

"Keith's coming with me," Shiro interjected, trying to shut down the conversation.

"Come on, Shiro! He said he was fine. You don't have to babysit him! He should get to see his family, too!"

"Lance! I'm an orphan." Keith spat out the reply in a growl, obviously unhappy that the topic had come up at all.

Lance deflated immediately and looked faintly ashamed. "Oh. Dude. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Allura watched as Keith waved a hand at Lance in a half-hearted acceptance of the apology. She hadn't known, either. But she felt an instant empathy with him because of it. Of all the Paladins, he would come closest to understanding her loss.

"Allura, can I take some Altean components with me? I think I can modify everyone's devices so we can stay in touch even over the long distance."

"Oh? I was simply going to give each of you a distress beacon to give to your families."

Shiro shook his head. "If Pidge can pull it off quickly, two-way communication would be much better."

"I'll try it with Matt's phone first, make sure I get it right."

"Hey! Why my phone?"

"Are _you_ using it right now?"

Sam jumped in before they could build up into a squabble. "All right, let's get started with the pods. I'll call Colleen and ask her to let the others know we'll be down in a few hours."

"One hour." Pidge and Hunk spoke together, then grinned at one another.

* * *

They met up in the hangar for the pods, dressed in civilian clothes, and the closest they could get quickly from the Castle's wardrobes for Sam and Matt. Pidge took charge as she showed everyone the controls for the cloak. "Okay, I've got the cloak lasting up to two hours, which should be plenty of time to get down there and find a place to hide the pods. Does everyone have your personal cloak for getting from the pods to your homes?" She glanced around, seeing nothing but nods. "Okay, then. We can use the group chat Lance's sisters set up if we need to talk to each other while we're down there. See you on the other side!"

They divided up to their respective pods. Shiro was halfway in before he realized that Keith was hanging back. "What is it?"

"Maybe I should stay here. You know, not be in the way."

Shiro dropped back to the floor and walked back over to him. "No, you're not doing that. My mom asked for you specifically. And you never wanted to disappoint my mom before."

Keith smiled a little at that, but persisted. "But this should be your time. With your family."

"And we wanted you as part of that family. The only reason you aren't an official Shirogane right now is horrible timing and a bitch of a program director. You're coming, stop arguing."

Shiro flew the pod down, grateful that his parents lived on the outskirts of Nagano and even more grateful that the dense forest to the north of their neighborhood had not fallen to development yet. He found a clearing where he could bring the pod down and land it under a natural overhang of trees, giving them a hike of about two kilometers to the house.

As they neared the end of the tree line, Shiro grabbed Keith's elbow and activated his personal cloak. Keith followed suit.

"If we get separated, you stop and I'll find you, all right?" He slid his hand down to grip Keith's.

"Got it." Keith let Shiro lead them between two houses and to the street. They rounded the curve and Keith could easily identify Shiro's home…it was the one with a dozen media vehicles parked around it and people milling around as close as they dared.

Shiro held onto him and they followed a fence to a point where a very large stone pot held a flowering bush, giving them a foothold. "Climb over and we'll be in the garden," Shiro hissed.

Keith waited until he heard Shiro land on the other side of the fence and followed. He dropped into a garden that was fully hidden from the street by curtains of wisteria. Shiro shimmered into view as he deactivated his cloak. He started for the door into the house and Keith trailed him. They slipped inside.

* * *

The only downside was that Lance had no one to high-five when his hunches paid off. The Aguilars, the richest family in the neighborhood, were off on one of their yacht tours. That meant that the enormous empty boathouse just a couple of streets from home was a perfect place to stash the pod out of sight. His parents had not moved the trash collection bin away from the storage shed, so the kids' secret way into the house via the window in the guest room was still there for getting around the crush of media vans camped in the street.

Once inside, he deactivated his cloak and moved quietly to the door. He could hear the rumble of many conversations going on downstairs. As he hesitated, trying to figure out an entrance that would both satisfy his habitual craving for drama and not cause a dozen heart attacks, his sister Sara emerged from her room.

Lance moved and grabbed her, making sure to cover her mouth in case she screamed.

Which she tried to do.

She also started kicking and got him in the shin hard enough to make his eyes water.

"Sara, it's me! Don't yell!"

She froze and Lance let go to move in front of her.

"Lance?" she whispered, her eyes round. "Lance! You're here!" She threw her arms around his neck and he lifted her up and spun them around. "You're here, you're here!"

He set her down and squeezed once more before letting her go. "Look, I need your help. There's way too many camera crews outside and I don't want them to know I'm here. Can you go down and quietly spread the word?"

She nodded. "I'll send Mamá and Papá up first."

Lance waited, pacing anxiously up and down the hall. He was on his third lap, headed away from the stairs, when he heard his mother's voice behind him. _"Hijo?"_

And then he was on the receiving end of one of the best hugs in the universe.

* * *

Hunk left his pod in the biggest of the cliff caves that he and his childhood friends had explored. After that it was a short hike up the path and to the cluster of houses where his mother and aunt lived. He approached slowly, reminding himself constantly that he was invisible.

He moved to the edge of the trees next to the road, looking carefully. Pidge had warned that there might be news teams staking out their homes with the story of their survival and return broken. He saw a mess of parked cars and vans…

At the other end of the road. There was a barricade set up with a small pickup truck, an empty boat trailer, and a couple more cars. Hunk could see people moving around behind it and recognized a few of their neighbors. He smiled, seeing how they were protecting his family, and felt Yellow purr in approval.

He moved to the back door, checked one more time that he couldn't be seen by the crowd on the other side of the barricade, and deactivated the cloak. He knocked gently and called, " _Tin_ _ā_?"

He heard startled movement inside, as if someone had dropped a book, and women's voices. The door opened and revealed his mother and aunt. They seized his hands and dragged him inside, embracing him from either side.

"Yoshi, Yoshi…" His mother tugged his head down until their foreheads and noses touched in the _hongi_ greeting. They held still for a minute, just breathing. Hunk concentrated on sealing this moment in his memory.

"My turn!" His aunt insisted and Hunk moved to repeat the _hongi_ with her. When they separated, Iolana turned her son back to face her and assumed a stern expression.

"Consider yourself slapped for disappearing on the Garrison so thoroughly that they chose to lie to us that you were dead."

"Yes, _Tin_ _ā_."

"Now, have you eaten?"

Hunk's stomach immediately growled in reply and they all laughed. Noni moved into the kitchen. "What would you like?"

"Anything!"

"Well, we can see what's on hand for making a couple of your favorites—"

"You don't understand, _uso_ -Noni, I really mean it. **Anything.** If we haven't had the chance to land on a planet and harvest some ingredients that are safe for us, we get stuck with this nutritional food goo every single meal. Coran means well, but the key to Altean cuisine seems to be how close it smells to sweaty socks."

Both women looked at him in dismay and his mother hugged him. "You poor child, let's get you fed! And we can send a few things back with you as well."

Hunk felt the idea explode in his brain. "Oh, man, do you think we have time to gather some seeds? All that space in the ship, there's got to be a place where we could set up a greenhouse and grow some stuff…"

Iolana smiled, thrilled to see her son's brilliant mind attacking a problem just as he had when he was small. He was alive. She could handle the rest.

* * *

Pidge guided Green to the football field of the nearby high school, grateful that she piloted one of the smallest Lions. The school was empty by this time of day and Green touched down unseen. All three Holts activated their cloaks and exited. Pidge and Green shared a mental equivalent of a fist bump and the Lion took off back to the castle.

They walked to the edge of the student parking lot, where Colleen waited as arranged. Making sure no one else was around, Pidge deactivated her cloak and waved at her father and brother to do the same. The three of them hopped into the Holt hovervan and Colleen touched the control that darkened the passenger windows. "There's a dozen media vans camped out in front of the house," she explained.

"Great," Pidge groused. She was already digging around in her backpack for the components she would need to try and turn their phones into communicators.

"We'll manage." Colleen pulled into traffic. "What do you all want to do first?"

Three voices responded at once.

"Shower!"

"Get up to speed on the news."

"Eat a dozen peanut butter cups."

As they all looked at one another and laughed, Colleen Holt smiled. Her family was whole again.

* * *

Allura convinced Coran to take advantage of their time and create a thorough map of the sector. Now that they had made it here once, Allura felt they ought to make regular visits so the paladins could keep in touch with their families.

Once he had started, she tasked the mice with keeping an eye on him and alerting her if he came looking for her. She had two things she wanted to investigate before presenting them as options to the group.

Her first stop was the large room that had once held Alfor's artificial intelligence. She stepped inside and approached the raised dais in the center. She examined it and found that while the device that housed the program was shattered, the controls and base were whole.

 _Step one._

She carefully removed the remnants, clearing the base of every shard of the destroyed A.I., and set it all aside. She then moved to a small storage area near the door and found plenty of unused devices on a shelf.

 _Step two._

The tools were there for her first idea. She would have to go to Coran and possibly Pidge or Hunk to see if the next step was possible.

From the A.I. room she went down to the Black Lion's hangar. It made no move as she entered, which was normal. Feeling terribly self-conscious, she crossed to stand in front of the massive beast and slid one foot back, dipping into a formal Altean curtsey.

The eyes flashed gold and it turned its head to look at her. She could always feel the Lion's presence, but this was different. It ( _she_ ) was waiting to see what Allura wanted.

"If I understand the stories my father would share, you five Lions are able to communicate on a level separate from us."

Assent.

"The Red Lion shared what happened to Keith, didn't she? That's what made the Castle shake?"

Assent.

"My father told me that at times, when the society's own judicial system was considered untrustworthy, that the injured party could ask for judgment from a Lion. Is that true?"

Assent, but with a questioning feel to it.

"And that the punishment was almost always considered fair?"

Assent, but now wary.

"I do not trust these people to punish this Darzi. I would like to ask you to judge him on Keith's behalf. Is this something you would consider?"

For a long moment, there was nothing but the neutral presence of the Lion. Allura held her breath, suddenly feeling that she had overstepped a boundary that she hadn't know existed. "I…I am sorry! I just wanted…these people need to know that they can't get away with harming our paladins! He almost killed Keith! He—"

She broke off when the presence returned, circling around her in comfort, willing her to calm down. And then a final wave of assent, followed by the instruction to send the Black Paladin to her when he returned.

Without thinking, Allura ran forward and knelt, pressing her hands and forehead against one enormous claw. "Thank you! Thank you! I will!"

She rose with a feeling of anticipation and went to find Coran. Her second idea would work.

* * *

The other Lions had listened in on the conversation. Blue was the first to offer an opinion.

 _ **I had hoped that this particular task would not be asked of us so soon.**_

Green growled in satisfaction. _**In this case, it is more than justified.**_

Yellow said nothing, which was not uncommon, but he shared Blue's unease.

Black understood. While the use of a Lion's sight into the quintessence of other beings was a useful ability, it was absolute. There had been a few times where the unexpected declaration of innocence had started incidents. It was one such incident that had driven the first wedge between Alfor and Zarkon. Black expressed that concern.

 _ **It is risky. What if my sight reveals a being who only misjudged or acted out of fear?**_

Red's growl reverberated through their bond with utter surety.

 _ **Oh, it won't. TRUST me.**_

* * *

Thank you for reading!


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

 **Note:** I am on Twitter and Tumblr as avidbeader. Come say hi!

* * *

Keith hung back as Shiro's parents pulled him into the sitting room and started hugging him. They were talking non-stop in Japanese and a lot of it was going over Keith's head. His mastery of the language was intermediate at best and it had been a long time since the Garrison, the last place he had used it with any frequency. He and Shiro had picked up where they left off, having conversations in Japanese about random things when it was mostly just the two of them on the Castle-ship.

He wandered around the edge of the room, taking it in, trying to give Shiro as much uninterrupted time as possible with his parents. His mother was in tears and Shiro was trying to soothe her—the Galra arm was the current topic of discussion.

Keith looked away again, glancing at the collection of photos on a side table, and froze at seeing the frame in a place of honor near the center.

It was a posed family shot with everyone dressed neatly in formal attire. Shiro's mother was to the left, his father to the right, both leaning in. A pre-teen Shiro was between them, his arms around his parents, and grinning delightedly at the camera.

And in front of Shiro, behind the clasped hands of Shiro's parents, was Keith.

He remembered that day: being dressed up in a new suit, Daichi helping both boys with their ties by leaning over them from behind. Then there was the train ride and a promise of ice cream later if they would behave themselves. The photographer had said the wrong thing, encouraging a shy Keith to think of the upcoming summer break and spending more time with his family.

At the time he had been with the Shiroganes for all of five weeks. He knew from experience that he would be somewhere else by the time summer rolled around. They seemed nice, but soon enough they would get tired of dealing with his nightmares or his picky eating habits because his stomach just would not calm down. They would lose patience with his struggles in school, owing to the constant moves. Or if they didn't, their son, Takashi, would get jealous and start acting out.

Something always happened. He had learned that by now, two years into the foster system.

Something always happened.

Ha hadn't begun to believe at the time of the photo. The best the photographer could get out of a seven-year-old Keith was a quiet curve of the lips, his eyes solemn. The photo wouldn't make a difference—they could always take another and throw this one away, after Keith was back at the group home or in yet another foster placement. Taking a photo meant nothing.

It took until his birthday in the fall for him to start believing. When one of the packages he unwrapped had the adoption application inside.

After that they were all counting the days until the yearlong foster period was over and they could begin formal adoption proceedings. Shiro was just beginning his plan to apply for the Garrison and Keith was finally up to an acceptable weight, his appetite back, his nightmares almost gone, his grades improving.

And then Shiro's grandfather suffered a heart attack back in Japan. His dad began making arrangements to transfer his job back to Nagano because there was no other family to support him.

And the director of the foster program refused to overlook it when they sent in one of the dozens of forms two days late.

"Keith!"

He jumped, jolted out of the memories, and turned to see Sayuri holding out her arms to him.

He reached out and took her hands, letting her pull him in. He was surprised to find that she was as small as Pidge; he had to lean his head down to press his cheek into her hair.

"My darling, we have missed you so much."

"I missed you."

Daichi embraced both of them and Keith shifted to get one arm around his neck. "I understand we have you to thank for getting Takashi away from the Garrison."

"I didn't know it was him until I got inside—I was just chasing whatever arrived. But yeah."

Shiro's mother pulled his head down and kissed his cheek. "Why didn't you get in touch with us after Takashi d—disappeared?"

Keith noticed her stutter and the shadow that crossed Shiro's face said he had also noticed. She was still adjusting to the fact that her son was alive. Shiro moved over and laid his flesh hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, _kaa-chan_ , I couldn't, at first." Keith used the Japanese address without thinking. "By the time I had pulled enough money together to replace the tablet the Garrison issued me, I'd found that energy signature from the Blue Lion and was sort of obsessing over searching for the source."

Shiro's father put a hand to Keith's head and turned his gaze to face him. "From now on, you come to us. Any time you need anything, you come to us. All right?"

Keith nodded. "Yes, sir."

* * *

Colleen pulled the van inside the garage while the rest of the Holts crouched down to avoid being seen through the front window. A couple of people from the media crews tried to block her path in, but she laid one hand on the horn and let it sound in a prolonged blast to get her point across.

Once inside, the four of them came together in a group hug that lasted several minutes. Pidge couldn't keep the tears in, but a sniffle somewhere told her she wasn't the only one. Finally Colleen pulled back slightly to kiss each of her children on the cheek before throwing herself into Sam's arms to kiss him soundly.

Pidge and Matt traded slightly embarrassed glances, then she moved into the living room and began clearing off the coffee table. Matt started to follow her, but Pidge waved him away. "Go take your shower or hug Mom again. I've only been gone a few weeks—she needs you and Dad more. I'll get these communicators started."

One corner of Matt's mouth quirked up in a sardonic smile. "Yes, ma'am."

Pidge began working the case of Matt's phone open. She was pretty sure that her plan would work and Hunk would be available to consult through the group chat if she needed help.

Speaking of which…

She looked around for her mother's tablet and grabbed it.

 **Holt family reporting in. Did everyone make it home OK?**

After a pause, the replies began coming:

 **Yes – Lance is still talking to our parents upstairs.**

 **Hunk here. Yeah, no trouble.**

 **Everyone is accounted for. See you all back at the Castle.**

* * *

Hunk noticed his mother smiling as he took yet another slice of mango and popped it into his mouth, savoring the flavor. She and his aunt were at the counter, putting the finishing touches on a large spread of sandwiches and fruit. The scent of the cookies in the oven wafted through the kitchen.

Noni finished her side and wiped her hands. "I'll go ask Mara to pass the word. We'll rotate everyone through, a house or two at a time, so those news people won't get suspicious." She paused at the door to slip on her sandals and exited.

Iolana finished her side and moved to check the oven.

"Give them a couple more minutes," Hunk advised, and she grinned at him.

"I'm glad your cooking instincts haven't suffered in all this," she quipped.

He beamed. "I know how I sounded like a total whiner earlier, but when we do have the chance to explore a planet, it can be really cool. I think my favorite thing so far was something that looked like blue apples, same texture, but tasted like the best sweet tea ever."

Iolana laughed at that. "That does sound interesting. Did they have a name?"

"Yeah, but not one that my mouth could pronounce. Too much hissing."

She laughed again and Hunk relaxed a bit. All his life she had worked so hard to give him opportunities but shield him from what she saw as others taking advantage of his easygoing nature. To her, he was Tsuyoshi, mechanical genius and talented cook. But when he was around his friends, he was satisfied with being Hunk, the guy who helped get things done. No one else among the kids he played with had a nickname that was not a shortened version of their real name and he chose to look at the positives of it, being the bigger and stronger kid in the group. When he had met Lance during orientation for the Garrison, Lance had balked at calling him "Yoshi" because of some old-school videogame character and Hunk had shared the nickname. Lance's enthusiasm for it had been contagious and by the end of first term all the students were calling him "Hunk."

"Tell me more. What has been your biggest success so far with cooking these alien things?"

Hunk was describing his adventures in chemistry as he tried to figure out baking a cake in space when Noni returned with a couple of families from the street.

* * *

As big as the family was, Lance still ran out of people to hug. He tried to delay some more by picking up Lydia to entertain her, but his father took the toddler and handed her off to a cousin.

"We need to talk, son."

Lance gulped but followed him into his office. His dad closed the door and waved at Lance to sit on the chair across from the desk. Lance shook his head—he had picked up from watching Shiro and Allura that standing was better for keeping one-on-one negotiations short. His father frowned and remained standing as well, instead of sitting behind the desk.

"You need to make arrangements to leave this team and stay here."

Lance barely avoided jumping out of his skin when Blue snarled in his mind. "I can't, _papá_. The Blue Lion _chose_ me. I'm the only one who can pilot her."

Seamus waved one hand in dismissal. "It can choose someone else."

Intellectually, Lance knew this was a possibility. But his heart cried out in denial. Blue was _his_ lion, they were partners. Her presence swelled within him, purring in approval and contentment.

"That's not how it works, _papá_. The lions can't just swap in and out—there has to be a match in our life forces." He tried to remember how Allura had put it weeks ago as she described the different qualities each pilot must possess…

…and he had interrupted her. He had no clue what qualities defined the Blue Lion's pilot. Keith and Red were instinct and fire, Hunk and Yellow were caring and support, Pidge and Green were intellect and curiosity, Shiro and Black were leadership. What was left for him?

Blue's presence grew stronger, telling him, **_It doesn't matter, I chose you_**. Lance straightened his shoulders. "I know it doesn't feel good, knowing I'm out there fighting a war, but you knew something like this would happen when I joined the Garrison to become a fighter pilot. You knew I'd be flying into space or into combat."

His father flinched at those words and Lance was suddenly on the alert.

" _P_ _apá_ _?_ You knew, right?"

Seamus McClain licked his lips nervously. "No, I didn't. You were classified as a cargo pilot after the first round. The counselor your mother and I talked with predicted that you would end up in cargo class. That was the only reason we went along with you applying to the Garrison."

Lance felt as if his father had punched him in the gut. "You expected me to fail?"

"Not fail, son! We were fine with you learning to fly! But we didn't want you in the fighter class, we didn't want the possibility of you going to war!"

"You didn't think I was good enough!"

His father's expression hardened. "Not for fighter class, no. All the pretests and the counselors made it clear that you would be a cargo pilot at the Garrison or a passenger pilot in the private sector. And we were happy with that because it meant you were safer. Having Jeremy decide on police work was bad enough."

"You didn't think I was good enough," Lance repeated dully.

 ** _I think you're more than good enough, my paladin!_** Blue's sentiment echoed in him and the hurtful realization that his parents had been humoring his dreams instead of supporting them began to ebb.

He looked up at his father. "Well, it turns out I was good enough. And now I'm part of the most elite team of pilots in the universe. And yeah, it's dangerous. But if I don't fight, then it's almost certain that the Galra will take over Earth just like they have a thousand other planets. I'm going back, _papá_. With or without your approval. Now, if that's all you wanted to say, I'd rather spend the rest of my visit catching up with everyone."

He turned and left the room.

* * *

"Coran, how involved were you in setting up the artificial intelligence for my father?"

The adviser turned from his fiddling at his station and looked at her warily. "Not very. I knew they had planned for it, but remember, I entered cryo-sleep not long after you did. I absolutely can't do anything to restore it."

"I realize that. I wanted to know if you could use the equipment to record someone's memories for presenting to others."

"Not really, but I expect Number Five could figure it out. Why?"

Allura wet her lips with her tongue. She knew it was the right thing to do and she felt reasonably certain that Shiro and the other paladins could convince Keith if he were reluctant. But she wasn't sure how Coran would react.

"I want to use the technology to provide evidence against the official who attacked Keith. If the group judging him is able to witness it—"

"Princess, that's interfering with a planet's sovereignty."

"He tried to kill Keith! I know this planet is still distant from the Galra Empire, but if we let this pass and word spreads, it will make us look weak! And I have to protect the paladins! They are my responsibility! Keith needs to know, they all need to know that I would do anything in my power to punish an act against them!"

Coran backed up as her words grew more heated and she paused to take a deep breath and try and calm down.

"I'm sorry, Coran. But I feel that this is something that must be pursued to its end."

"No, princess, I should apologize. You have very strong points. It's just that…you reminded me—"

"Of my father?"

"No, actually. Of your mother."

That startled a laugh out of Allura and she smiled. "Really?"

"Yes. Every physical attack against the paladins, every verbal insult…she met them all with passion. Sometimes I think she would have been a perfect Red Paladin herself. She and Alfor made a good team: her fervor and his consideration."

"I want to hear more sometime. But for now, let's see if we can strengthen the particle barrier while we wait."

* * *

Pidge snapped the case shut on the converted phone and blew her hair out of her face. "That's the last bit. Time to test this baby!"

The others watched as she thumbed the icon showing a stylized lion's face. It brought up a menu with six color blocks: black, red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. She pressed the orange block.

A series of tones sounded, then Coran's voice came through. "Hello? Which one is this?"

"It's Pidge! Just testing our new communicators. How far away are you?"

"We landed on a moon next to this huge gas planet. It's got this amazing section of red in its southern hemisphere—"

"Jupiter. Yeah, we know. Well, you're coming in loud and clear, so I think these will work. Let me try one more time and see if I can leave a message. If that works, I think we've got it! I'll just need to do the others and run them to the rest of the families in Green."

"All right, Number Five. Has your family decided what they're going to do yet?"

Pidge glanced up at Matt, who was curled up in a chair near her and listening in rather than reading the tablet in his hand. Their parents were still upstairs. "Not yet. But we'll have a decision before it's time to leave."

"Very good. Oh, I'll need your help. Allura has a project involving the A.I. projection room and I don't know enough about its design to make it happen."

"I can probably do that. Do you need me to come on back now?"

"No, no. It can wait. Enjoy your family time."

"Okay. Good night!"

She ended the transmission and looked at Matt. "Is it decision time, o brother mine?"

He stretched and set the tablet on the coffee table. "There's no decision about it. I want to go with you all. But I get the feeling that it's all up to Mom whether she and Dad come with us or stay here."

"And if they stay?"

"I can hang here for a little while. I do need to get new glasses…or bite the bullet and do the surgery thing. Getting a checkup in general is probably a good idea. But if I do that I want you to promise that you guys will come back for me soon."

Pidge nodded and held out her fist, the little finger extended.

Matt stared for a second, then chuckled and linked his pinky with hers.

* * *

Shiro stirred, wondering briefly where he was. The bed was much bigger than normal, the light soft instead of the harsh blue-white of the Castle-ship. He jerked when someone's hand ran through his hair.

"Takashi?"

His mother. Shiro relaxed back into the pillows and tried to calm his pounding heart. He opened his eyes to see her sitting next to him on the bed. Sunlight streamed through thin gauze curtains. It was probably around seven in the morning.

"How long did I sleep?" He could never count on more than three hours at a time these days, between the nightmares and the emergencies.

"At least six hours. You clearly needed it."

Shiro propped himself up on one elbow. "I wish you hadn't let me sleep for so long. The point of coming was to spend time with you."

Sayuri smiled. "I have been perfectly content. Seeing you, knowing you're alive, that's enough for me. But why aren't you sleeping well?"

Shiro looked away at that. He felt a wave of guilt over not being able to keep it together. He was supposed to be the team's leader, the one they could count on.

His mother put a hand to his chin and turned his gaze back to her. "Takashi. Talk to me."

"I…it's…" Words failed. How could he explain to his mother everything that had happened? The terror of the capture, the months in the gladiator ring or Haggar's laboratory, the struggle to forge a team out of a random group of kids. The fears that he would make a mistake that couldn't be fixed; that he would get them all killed due to some error in his judgment; that, without them standing in the way, Earth and the rest of the known universe would fall to the empire.

His throat was closing up, making breathing impossible. His heart rate was accelerating again. He could hear Sendak's taunts: _You've been broken and reformed._

Sayuri slid over and pulled him to her, his head resting on her chest. Her arm circled his shoulders, holding him close, and her other hand began stroking his hair. She began humming and Shiro recognized the tune: one of his favorite lullabies as a young child. Sayuri would hum or sing it to him well into his teens whenever he was sick or had a nightmare.

He concentrated on her sound and touch, his pulse slowing to match hers and his lungs taking in air again. Finally, she broke the silence.

"You'll tell us when you can. Just remember, no matter what happens, we love you. We will always love you."

Shiro nodded and slid his arms around her to return the embrace. She kissed the top of his head and resumed running her fingers through his hair.

Neither of them noticed when Keith glanced into the room in search of them and quietly retreated.

* * *

Thank you as always for reading!


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

 **Reminder:** I'm on Twitter and Tumblr under the same username. Come say hi!

 **Happy Season 3 Eve, everyone!**

* * *

Shiro sat at the window and watched as his father and Keith walked together in the garden, enjoying the morning sun. They had developed the habit back when Keith was first fostered with them, to spend a little time each day walking and talking about anything that crossed their minds. As he watched, Daichi reached over and put an arm across Keith's shoulders. Instead of stiffening the way Shiro was used to seeing Keith do when other people invaded his personal space, Keith leaned into it. It brought a smile to Shiro's face.

He heard footsteps behind him and Sayuri ran her fingers in his hair. "How can you still maintain this outlandish cut of yours up there in space?" She had never really liked his undercut.

"They have clippers. Plenty of aliens with hair like ours."

She laughed a little at that, then took his hand as she sat beside him.

"Takashi, please. Tell me some of it. What is going on up there? How can they expect you to lead a war at your age? With… with children? How can they ask you to kill?"

Shiro pressed his lips together before answering, considering exactly how much to share. "It's on a different scale than what we think of as war. A lot of what we do is take out giant weaponized robots. Or drones that are commanded by a single central computer that might or might not have a living person running it. I think you could count the number of actual beings we've killed on two hands." That didn't include the arena, of course, but that was a different conversation for another time.

Sayuri looked a little reassured, but persisted with a mother's instincts. "And what about the first time?"

"First time?"

"When you and the Holts were taken from Kerberos. What happened to you?"

Apparently they were going to have the other conversation now as well.

She was looking down, focused on his cybernetic hand. Shiro realized that she was imagining experiments and torture, straight out of SF horror films.

Shiro reached over with his human hand and clasped hers. "It wasn't…it wasn't vivisection, _kaa-chan_. Nothing like that. The Galra are a conquering race, not scientists. They send most of their prisoners of war to work camps…or to gladiator arenas."

Her eyes flew up to his face, zeroing in on the scar that crossed it. "Takashi?"

He swallowed hard. "I had to fight for my life, _kaa-chan_. Over and over. There wasn't any way out other than to keep winning." He ran his tongue around his teeth, trying to work some saliva into a suddenly dry mouth. "I had blocked out a lot of my memories from my imprisonment, but bits and pieces have been coming back. I remember that I tried, every time, to get the others to yield before I hurt them too much. The Galra hated that, but they never stopped me."

"Did they…did they release them? Or kill them after for surrendering?"

Shiro looked up at her and the concern in her face deepened. He could feel how haunted his eyes must be.

"I don't know, _kaa-chan_."

She put her free hand to his face, drawing him close to press her cheek to his. Shiro managed to bite back the sobs that wanted to break free, but couldn't stop the tears from spilling over. Sayuri stood and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close.

He closed his arms around her and let himself cry it out. For the first time since Kerberos, he felt no shame over the tears. No guilt for showing weakness. Just the release of knowing he had survived, his family was still here, and he was loved.

* * *

Lance hit on an excellent strategy of avoiding his father in the throng by hovering near his grandmother and great-aunts, all of whom insisted he was too thin and plied him with ropa vieja, tostones, and buñuelos. The younger cousins were also a good line of defense, swarming him with questions about space, aliens, and the alive-again Kerberos crew.

Late in the evening, Sara dragged him upstairs to her room and gave him her tablet so he could catch up a little on his social media sites. As he skimmed posts from friends, she leaned over and asked, "You okay?"

He glanced up at that. "Yeah, why?"

"I overheard _papá_ telling _mamá_ that you were going back. Did he try to talk you out of it?"

Lance nodded, the pain of the conversation returning. Blue purred in his mind.

Sara leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. They just want you to be safe."

"Well, no one on the planet will be safe if I don't go back."

She put her arm around him. "You're serious, aren't you? It's just you and four other kids up there fighting an evil empire?"

"And a princess and her adviser. And some space mice. And we've got some aliens on our side so far. The Arusians are short people with horns and the Balmerans are rock people, but they support us. And the Metreans." Lance shivered a little, remembering long, spidery arms. "We'll find more."

The tablet pinged with a message: _Incoming._

"What the _quiznak_?" Lance frowned at the message.

"What the what?" Sara laughed and he realized what he had said.

"Sorry, it's a rude word in Altean."

"Uh-huh. What's the message mean?"

A voice sounded from midair. "It means I gave you a bit of warning before freaking you out."

Sara shrieked and Lance grabbed her to keep her from falling off the bed.

"Pidge!"

She shimmered into view and grinned that gremlin grin that never failed to irritate him. "Yes?"

"What are you doing here?"

She held out a pocket-sized device. Lance recognized it as one of the latest smartphones and took it.

"Giving your family their communicator. It'll definitely reach the Castle across the solar system and I'm pretty sure that they'll match the castle's range. There's a message option in case we do find a maximum distance on them." She woke the device and pointed to the lion icon. "They hit this and then blue for you or orange for the Castle. I added the rest of us just in case." She handed the phone to Sara, who was staring open-mouthed. "Hi, I'm Pidge. Which sister are you?"

Lance jumped in. "This is Sara. Mina's still downstairs. How did you get in here?"

"Cloaking device, duh."

"But how'd you know where to come?"

"Tracking option on _your_ cloaking device, _duh_."

Lance's expression turned offended. "You put tracking on these things?"

"So you want to get knocked unconscious while invisible and not be found? I can arrange that."

Lance felt his face burn red and Sara had recovered enough to laugh. "I like you. How did you get to Cuba?"

"My Lion. I got all the comm devices done and figured I'd deliver them myself. How's it going here?"

Sara squeezed his arm in support.

"Well, I've had the chance to talk to almost everyone who could get here, if I eat any more I'm gonna hurl, my dad tried to tell me I wasn't going back, and my favorite band broke up."

"That sounds—wait, what?"

Sara nodded. "They're scared for him."

"I get that. I mean, look what happened to my dad and brother and Shiro. Space isn't the safest place. But if we don't try and stop the Galra, Earth will get invaded."

"Maybe you should tell our dad that," Sara observed. "If he hears it from enough people, maybe he'll realize that you all really do have to go."

Pidge shrugged. "Is he really going to listen to a girl half his size?"

Sara snorted. "Appear out of thin air in front of him like you did us. That might impress him."

"No," Lance interrupted. "It's a fifty-fifty chance whether that impresses him or pisses him off."

Pidge leaned down, looking Lance in the face. "You need us, you call us. Okay? Otherwise we'll see you back at the Castle. Allura said to be back by 1800 hours tomorrow your time."

"Wait, that late? That's over twenty-four hours here. Shiro said we had eighteen hours."

"Let's just say Allura didn't remember that _vargas_ are longer than hours."

This time her gremlin grin didn't bother Lance at all.

* * *

Iolana watched as Hunk deftly arranged a plate and handed it to Mr. Araullo, the neighbor who had contributed his boat trailer to the barricade keeping the media crews at a distance. The older man pulled a paper packet out of his pocket and handed it to Hunk, who beamed at him.

More seeds. The neighborhood had jumped on the idea of seeds and starter plants with enthusiasm, taking up a collection and sending a few volunteers to town to purchase some things while others checked their homes and gardens for possibilities. Hunk added the packet to the table that was already filling up with contributions and moved back to prepare another meal for the next person.

Noni stepped up to take over—the three of them had been rotating serving duty during the afternoon's impromptu party—and pushed Hunk with a plate of cookies toward the group of children who were waiting patiently for him to be free again.

Hunk sat down and started sharing out the cookies. Most of the kids began scarfing them down immediately, which meant only a few were fighting to get their question in first.

"Come on, you know the rule. Take turns by height, shortest one first."

"I like that rule!"

Hunk's head snapped up at the familiar voice. "Pidge?"

A small teenage girl appeared out of midair and looked a little abashed at the sea of open mouths around her. "Sorry, I would have tried to be more discreet about it but I thought you should have this." She handed a camera to Hunk, who took it in bafflement.

"I tripped a guy who was trying to sneak close enough for pictures. He had a press badge on. I don't know if he already took any. He…might have hit his head a little on a tree, but he'll probably be fine."

Hunk frowned and pulled up the digital display to start flipping through the photos. He growled at the first ones showing zoom views into their windows and started deleting them. Iolana and Noni traded looks and Noni slipped out to alert the neighbors currently on guard duty at the barricade and collect some help in checking on the man.

Iolana came forward and Hunk made introductions before offering, "You hungry? We've got plenty."

"Sure, but just a little. I stopped by to give your mom her communicator." She handed the converted phone to him. "Lion icon to open the program, yellow to contact you, orange to contact the castle. Other colors for the rest of us just in case."

"Sweet!" Hunk looked up at her and Iolana nodded to indicate she had heard it all.

"That's very kind of you." If nothing else, these children were looking out for one another and that was some comfort to a mother's heart.

As they passed the table that held Hunk's future garden, he brightened. "Hey, did you fly Green down here?"

"Yeah, came in stealthed to the beach down the cliff."

"Can we get you to take this stuff back? That way I'll have more room in the pod for the rest."

"Sure, what is it?" Pidge asked, looking it all over.

"Everyone's sharing seeds and stuff so we can grow our own Earth food in the castle!"

The girl's eyes lit up. "Hunk, you are _quiznaking_ brilliant! Have you got a list of what you've collected? We can do the same with the rest of the team!"

Iolana stepped up. "I'll have Mrs. Lim do it. She loves organizing things."

"Thanks, _Tin_ _ā._ " Hunk rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to make Coran try everything!"

Pidge laughed at that. "We should start with things like oatmeal, mashed potatoes. Stuff that's like their food goo. And then _blow their minds_."

Iolana was amused and just a little bit frightened at the maniacal glow in her eyes.

* * *

Keith was doing his best not to simply inhale the food before him.

He had forgotten just how good Sayuri's cooking was. In the States she had experimented with a variety of ethnic cuisines, teaching Keith to be more adventurous in his tastes.

But the simple early lunch of miso, rice, grilled fish, cucumbers and konnyaku was perfect. He savored the flavors and textures, already regretting the return to the ship and its unending supply of food goo when Hunk didn't have the ingredients to experiment.

The idea of a grocery run before returning to the Castle occurred to him and he filed it away for after the meal.

Shiro caught his eye and gave him a rueful expression as he took another mouthful of rice, knowing exactly what Keith was thinking.

"I would like to hear more about this princess," Sayuri commented, helping them to pace themselves with conversation.

Keith shrugged. "What do you want to know? She's a princess. I think she's my age or older but not as old as Shiro. She's a pretty good diplomat but better at leading, if that makes sense."

Shiro added, "And she can handle herself on an infiltration mission."

Sayuri nodded and suddenly focused on Keith. She reached out with a napkin to dab at his face. "You've got something—"

Keith shot back from her, knocking his chair over as he jumped to his feet.

Shiro rose as well. "Keith?"

Keith balled his fists as he struggled to shove away the flashback. _You're safe, you're safe, it's not him, you can breathe…_ He tried to force more air into his lungs to prove it.

He could hear their voices, as if from a distance, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.

Shiro's voice broke through the haze. "Keith, you're hyperventilating! Slow down!" Hands on his shoulders steadied him, guiding him back to a chair.

He felt arms around him. Sayuri was trying to speak to him. "Keith, what is it?"

He still didn't feel like he had enough air to breathe, much less speak. Red rumbled in his mind, **_It is all right, my cub. It is safe, you are safe._**

Her presence steadied him and he managed slower, shuddering breaths. "Sorry," he gasped, leaning forward and putting his head in his hands. "I'm sorry."

As Shiro's parents made concerned noises and Shiro knelt in front of him, Keith heard a tapping nearby. He looked up and saw Pidge in the doorway.

Shiro followed his gaze and rose. "Pidge? Is anything wrong?"

"No! At least…I was just bringing your parents their communicator." She stepped forward, bowed uncertainly, and held out the modified smartphone to Shiro's father. "Open the lion icon. Black is Shiro, red is Keith, orange is the castle, the other colors are the rest of us. It allows messages if we don't answer."

Daichi took the communicator and returned the bow. "Thank you."

Pidge turned to Keith. "Are you okay?"

Keith hesitated, but nodded. "I will be."

Sayuri ran her hand through his hair. "What did I do that frightened you?"

Shiro noticed Pidge's expression shift to an "a-ha" realization. "Pidge?"

"I thought the lions told you all."

"Told us what?"

"Darzi," Keith interrupted. The last thing he wanted was Pidge giving the details to Shiro and his parents like he was helpless. "Darzi came close to suffocating me. I'm still a bit…jumpy…about hands near my face."

Shiro knelt once more and moved very slowly and deliberately to lay his hands on either side of Keith's face. Keith inhaled sharply but didn't jerk away. Shiro spoke in a low voice. "The lions did tell us. I didn't realize you were having flashbacks about it."

Keith shrugged, starting to feel crowded by everyone hovering over him. "I'll get over it."

Shiro looked ready to argue. Daichi gently tugged him back but circled to face Keith. "Should we find someone for you to talk to, ask the princess to let you stay here a few weeks?"

"No! We have to go back now! Every day we delay in fighting Zarkon, the stronger he gets!" Keith drew in breath to continue his argument, but paused at a sudden squeal from a bouncing Pidge.

Shiro looked at her in bewilderment. "Pidge? What's going on?"

"That's it! That's how we convince my mom to come with us!"

"Okaaaay… How?"

"Her other major in college was psychology! She can be our ship's counselor!"

* * *

Pidge walked into the family room to find her parents sitting together with a tablet as her mom caught her dad up on the news. Matt was sprawled across the loveseat, working his way through a bowl of popcorn and watching the sequel to a favorite movie that had been released while he was on his way to Kerberos.

She crossed over to Matt and shoved his legs out of the way so she could sit. He stuck his tongue at her and she buried her hand in his bowl to scoop out some popcorn.

"Hey!"

Colleen looked up. "If you're hungry, Katie, there's—"

"I'm not. Just wanted the salt. I've had food in Cuba, Samoa, and Japan and I'm full."

"All the comm units delivered?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, everyone's set."

Colleen asked, "Where's ours?"

The other three traded looks and Pidge licked her lips. _Now or never…_

"Well, what if I told you I had a great idea, Mom?"

Colleen's eyes narrowed, but she put the tablet down. "I'm listening."

"I know Dad and Matt want a few weeks here to sort of catch up on things. But I know we can use Matt as another comms specialist to support Coran and Dad would have all kinds of opportunity to study xenobiology."

Colleen's expression hardened just a little, hearing it said out loud that her family was ready to leave the planet again.

Pidge drew a deep breath. "You could dust off your second degree and be our Deanna Troi."

Matt let out one startled yelp of laughter at the reference before clapping a hand over his mouth. His eyes danced in glee at the idea.

Sam's expression brightened at the thought. "That's got potential. I know you kids are incredibly capable—I saw it myself when you all rescued Keith from the Garrison—but you're all still kids fighting the front lines of a war." He turned to Colleen. "You wouldn't be just tagging along and feeling useless. You'd be filling a role that is genuinely needed."

Colleen looked stunned. "But…I'm not qualified. I've been working in chemistry all this time. I'm not licensed."

Matt broke in with enthusiasm. "You're trained, Mom! You just need to brush up on the latest advances! And I don't think they're going to require a license on the Castle-ship."

"And we'd all be together, Mom," Pidge added softly. "Please say you'll think about it?"

Her mother looked at all of them, expressions full of hope that she would say yes. "I… yes, I'll think about it."

* * *

As the time grew near for the paladins to return, Allura went down to the hangar for the pods and waited. Hunk was the first one to arrive, bursting with excitement and throwing dozens of questions at her about greenhouses and gardens within the castle. She finally managed to break in and suggest he consult with Coran later, just as Lance arrived.

A few minutes later, a screen appeared, showing Pidge on the command deck. "Where is everyone?"

"We're at the pods. Shiro and Keith haven't returned yet and we're waiting on them. When they get here, could you meet us in the chamber that housed my father's A.I.?"

"Sure thing, Princess. Coran said you might need my help?"

"Possibly. Did your father and brother return as well?"

"Not yet. I need to talk to you about that when we have a chance."

Allura was about to reply but spotted the last pod entering the hangar. "They're here!"

As Shiro and Keith exited the pod, Allura spied a pile of bags in the space behind their seats that looked to hold foodstuffs. Lance had a similar stash, and of course Hunk was already off and running with the notion of growing Earth foods here. Allura bit her lip, trying to stamp down a sudden stab of jealousy that the paladins still had access to their home planet, their families. She would never hug her father again, smell a juniberry flower, or taste a cup of hot kavisia.

Then she noticed that Shiro was hovering a little over Keith, who looked like he hadn't slept well. And her mission took first place in her thoughts again.

"Paladins, would you follow me?"

She led the group to the A.I. chamber and through its door. Pidge was already there and looking around curiously. When Allura turned to face them, they were all wearing expressions of confusion. Shiro looked concerned. "What's going on, Princess? I thought your father's holoprogram was corrupted beyond repair."

Allura straightened her posture and stamped down her grief. "Yes, it was, but the hardware itself was undamaged. It's still functional. Coran?"

"Ready, princess!" The adviser's voice echoed from somewhere.

And suddenly they were all in the cryo-room of the Castle, looking out from inside a pod as its shell dissolved. Allura heard Lance let out a startled squeak and suddenly remembered his experience with the rogue healing pod. Perhaps she should have shown this to just Keith after all…

As they watched, they realized they were seeing through Coran's eyes. He spotted them and shouted, "Enemy combatants!" He charged toward Lance, the one closest to him, only to lose his balance. " _Quiznak!_ You're lucky I have a case of the old 'sleep chamber knees'."

As they watched, the scene got more and more ridiculous and even Lance was both giggling and covering his rapidly-reddening face. "Oh my god, why did I do that?"

The scene ended abruptly at Allura's horrified cry of "It can't be!" They could see the walls of the chamber once more. Coran stepped out from a recessed area with a control panel of some sort.

Pidge tilted her head. "So, you didn't need me after all?"

Coran shook his head. "No, it's all working perfectly, just as we needed."

Lance was leaning on Hunk, hiding his blushes and laughing into his friend's shoulder. Shiro patted Lance's back and stepped forward. "Amusing as that was, may I ask why?"

Allura drew in a breath. "I want to ask Keith to record his memory of that man's assault and enter it as evidence for his trial."

She had been focusing on Shiro, but her eyes snapped to Keith as he staggered back slightly. Allura's heart jumped—she had never seen any of the paladins' faces turn that pale! She darted toward him, even as Shiro turned and steadied him.

"Keith! I'm sorry! I thought—I was trying to help!"

He raised a hand, visibly collecting himself. Pidge moved to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"No, I'm sorry. I should have a handle on this. I just…don't want to remember it."

"I think that's kind of her point, buddy," Hunk offered. "Which would be better, going through it once here, where you know it's safe and we've all got your back, or having to testify at a court-martial?"

Allura couldn't believe it, but Keith's face now rivaled her hair for whiteness. His indigo eyes were huge. But he showed his mettle as a paladin immediately. "Will…will they accept it? Can they accept it as evidence? They don't have the technology to access Altean files."

"Oh, I can help with that," Pidge volunteered.

"Actually, my intention was to insist that the proceedings be held here, as the wronged sovereign nation."

Shiro frowned, his doubt showing in his tone. "That might not work. Usually we look for a neutral venue when it's needed."

"Well, if your planet wishes to be seen as equal to others in the greater universe, they'll need to accept the Interstellar Charter of Cooperation. I'm citing one of its rules when it comes to disputes concerning attacks on a royal personage or their representatives."

She didn't dare look at Coran. The Paladins didn't need to know that the charter had been drafted, but never fully ratified before Zarkon began attacking on an interplanetary scale. Neither did Earth.

Making this Darzi pay for what he did to Keith was all that mattered.

* * *

Thanks as always for reading/comments!

PS: If you're a fan of Shiro and Keith as a couple, I wrote 5 short stories as part of Tumblr's recent Sheith Week. You can read four of them here - check my profile for "Sheith Summer Week - Sheith Positivity Week 2017" - and the fifth one is over on AO3 (same username) because it's potentially too sexy for this site.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

Reminder: I'm on Twitter and Tumblr under the same username. Come say hi!

* * *

After helping one another to unload their troves of Earth supplies in the kitchens or their rooms, Shiro directed everyone to suit up and report to the command deck. They had let the Garrison and Earthforce stew for over thirty-six hours and they were ready to present their demands.

 _Leave our families in peace. Contact us immediately if you have any alien activity in the solar system. Here's some shiny tech to help monitor that._

 _And punish Darzi for his actions._

Shiro hoped it would be that simple.

Allura entered the command deck first after Shiro arrived. She was wearing one of her gowns, navy with pink trim, but her hair was pulled up, surrounded by a gleaming tiara. "Do you think this will be impressive enough?"

Shiro nodded. "You look beautiful and terrifying." Behind her, Coran looked up from his console with an amused look for Shiro's words.

She smiled. "Good." She moved to stand beside him. "Shiro, there is another option to the issue of prosecuting that man."

"Another option besides a joint tribunal here on the ship? Because I'm not sure we can persuade Earthforce to go along with that. They'll protest having any Altean representation among the judge advocates, since there's a grand total of six of us to choose from and we all have a huge conflict of interest in the proceedings."

Allura's expression hardened. "If they expect to be recognized—"

"Princess, they may not care. Earth is still decentralized. We're a bunch of sovereign states, not a unified planetary government. The closest thing to that is the United Nations, and their authority is limited. Earthforce may be a combined effort at international peacekeeping, but any country can pull its soldiers and arsenals out at any time."

She huffed. "Well, that's a silly way to do things!"

"Not as advanced as you, remember?"

Allura sighed. "So primitive. I'm amazed this planet produced the five of you."

"Anyway, what is the alternative?"

"You need to talk with the Black Lion about it. In the past, the lions could be asked to measure the conscience of the accused and confirm guilt or innocence."

Shiro's eyebrows shot up. "They can do that?"

"How else do you think they select their paladins?"

He gulped a little at that. He remembered a feeling of being assessed as the other lions roared, welcoming Black. Weighed and judged and found worthy.

But how did that square with the knowledge that the first Black Paladin had done something that had ended his Red Paladin?

Black growled in his mind, sounding almost petulant. **_He changed. Besides, everyone should be allowed one mistake._**

Shiro shoved his tongue between his teeth, trying to hold in a sudden impulse to laugh.

* * *

Keith met Pidge en route to the command deck. She moved in and put one arm around him. He tensed for an instant before making himself relax and return the gesture. He had been comfortable about his personal space with Shiro's parents; Pidge should be no different.

Leading him down the hall, Pidge looked up and asked, "Do you think you'll be able to do it? Record the memory of the attack? Hunk's point was really good—it'll be so much easier on you in the long run. It removes the need for testimony and cross-examination."

"I don't know. What's to prevent them from saying it's faked?"

Pidge frowned at that, thinking. "True. But if you provide another memory, something that they can confirm independently, that might convince them. Or we can make one of them test it."

Red's presence in his head surged as she offered an inspiration. Keith was suddenly immersed in the memory of stepping out of her, extending a hand to Iverson to shake, only to have a medtech make him stand still long enough for snipers to hit him with tranqs. Iverson could corroborate that event and it would be one more piece of evidence against Darzi, who had ordered it.

"Red's got an idea. That might work. I just…"

Pidge tightened her hold on him. "I'll be there if you want. We all will."

They entered the command deck and saw Shiro and Allura. Keith noticed that Shiro was trying very hard not to smile and wondered what was going on. Allura turned to them.

"Keith, have you thought about my suggestion? If it will truly be too painful, I won't ask you to do it."

"No, I think I can. Hunk was right, if they will accept that they're seeing true memories, then there's nothing they have to ask me."

Shiro's expression darkened at that. "How are we going to convince them?"

"Pidge had a good idea. I can record another memory or two that they can verify independently so they'll know for sure."

Allura smiled, pleased that her plan was coming together. "Excellent."

Lance and Hunk entered together and Lance looked around. "Are we ready to do this?"

"We are. Hunk, can you repeat what you did before to connect us?"

"Piece of cake. Come on, Pidge, let me show you what we did."

* * *

It had been over thirty-six hours of tension and misery. Iverson and Benítez took turns monitoring the communications center, sleeping in an office down the hall. The media blitz had shifted from reporting on the proof of aliens to either trying to get more information about the five Garrison members or submitting open records requests for more information about Earthforce's actions during the crisis.

Iverson rubbed a hand over the two days' worth of stubble on his chin. He had managed a quick shower and a fresh uniform during his last rest period, but coffee was no longer doing its job in keeping him alert.

As he looked around for the aide to ask about the possibility of something stronger, the main viewscreen jumped to life.

Iverson straightened at seeing his Kerberos pilot and the alien woman again. This time she was dressed like a fairy-tale princess, but it didn't fool him. This person was a force to be reckoned with.

"Commander Iverson. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"It's understandable, Shiro…Captain Shirogane. I'll summon the general." He waved at the aide, who took off. Iverson scrubbed at his face, trying to bring himself back to full alertness.

He watched as his former Kerberos pilot gestured, bringing forth the other members of the team. This time Katie Holt was there as well, in the same armor as the others with green accents. Iverson relaxed a bit at seeing Kogane, looking fit and healthy in the red armor. He tried to control his expression, knowing that the general would be there any minute to reopen negotiations. Then Kogane tilted his head slightly, a quizzical look on his face.

Iverson blinked and Kogane broke into a slightly disbelieving smile. "Guys, have you ever seen him look so…I don't even know what to call it. Relieved? Pleased? Almost happy?"

"Given that the last time I saw you, you were in a coma that we weren't sure you'd survive, I think I'm allowed."

McClain let out one bark of laughter before stifling it with his hand. The others looked like they were fighting back smiles, but the woman frowned and spoke with an icy tone.

"Commander, I need to know where things stand with the prosecution of Darzi."

Iverson nodded. "General Benítez is the convening authority for the court martial. She has entered and preferred the charges, along with General Caplan as the judge advocate assigned to the proceedings. We expect Darzi to prefer the charges and enter his pleas sometime before the end of the day. He's hired a personal lawyer instead of allowing someone to be appointed."

"Pleas?" Shiro zeroed in on the unexpected bit of information, just as Iverson had hoped. "What are the exact charges?"

"Unlawful imprisonment, assault, and attempted manslaughter."

"Manslaughter? What does that mean?" The woman's voice broke in sharply.

Shiro put a hand on her shoulder. "It means that they don't think Darzi went in there intending to kill. In our terms, murder includes planning and intent."

"Exactly…your highness. We can't prove intent, so we're going for the strongest charges we can make stick."

The woman's brilliant blue eyes narrowed at him.

"And it's going to be tough. I've been ordered to convene it as a special court martial, not a general one." Benítez sat down beside him, running her hands through her hair.

Iverson turned to her. "No!"

"What does that mean?" Fury was rising on the woman's face.

"It means that any punishments would be less severe," Shiro answered and she whirled on him.

"I knew it, Shiro! I knew—"

Shiro brought his other hand up and held her in place. Iverson was fascinated at the clashing dynamics. On the one hand they were supposed to be a ruler and her…commandant? General? But right now it looked like two friends arguing, one trying to calm the other down.

"They're doing what they have to in order to get a guilty verdict. If Darzi is declared innocent, then he can't be tried for it again."

She jerked back sharply. "Not even if new evidence is found?"

Shiro shook his head. "It's called double jeopardy and most of our court systems don't allow it to happen."

"This will not stand! I—"

"Princess!" The others had moved closer and Kogane reached out, turning her to face him. "Princess, it doesn't matter. We've done what we wanted to do here, we can just leave."

 _That_ got protests from the others, including a fierce "Hell, no!" from Katie Holt. Again, Iverson felt he was looking at a tightly-knit group of friends, almost a family, instead of a squadron of pilots and a royal personage. Shiro and the princess stared at one another briefly, an entire conversation happening in minute expression changes. Then Shiro nodded at her.

The Princess turned to them. "I am invoking the Interstellar Charter of Cooperation, an alliance of over a hundred planetary governments. Any proceedings will be held where I dictate, with witnesses of my choosing to observe. You will hold them on board my ship, as the only piece of Altean territory that is readily available to you. We will land near your Garrison."

Benítez' mouth had dropped open at this sudden tirade. "I don't know if—"

"Yes," Iverson interrupted her. "Yes, General. They deserve concessions to balance everything that has been done to undermine this case." He heard several people react to his blatant declaration, but he didn't care. He would push as hard as necessary to try and get justice out of this for Keith.

* * *

They agreed to schedule the hearing for the next day. Somewhat unexpectedly, Darzi entered a guilty plea for the assault charge, but not guilty for the others. If he had hoped to soothe Allura's temper by partially capitulating, he had misjudged badly. She was more determined than ever to punish him.

After changing back to their regular clothes and grabbing a meal, Allura had taken Hunk and Lance with her somewhere, leaving Coran to help Keith with the memory device. Shiro and Pidge tagged along without comment. Coran explained the process as he settled Keith in a chair and set a metal headband in place.

"It's quite simple, really. Concentrate on the memory. Once you've got it front and center, touch this control to start recording. Do the same thing to stop it." He guided Keith's hand to a place on the headband. "Now, it's up to you, but you can choose to record privately or you can go ahead and project it for us to see."

"Projecting means we can make sure it's working," Pidge offered.

Keith felt Shiro lay a hand on his shoulder. He nodded, even though he was still unhappy with the entire thing. "Okay, projection it is, Coran."

He felt Pidge's hand on his other shoulder and drew a deep breath. He shut his eyes and concentrated on the first memory he wanted, one that would easily prove to Iverson that the machine was doing what it claimed.

* * *

 _He sat in the simulator, directing the flight with an easy grace. The asteroid belt had been a breeze and his engineer, a competent girl with a snarky attitude that he enjoyed, had been able to fix the stabilizers problem in under a minute. All that was left was a successful reentry and they'd be done._

 _"_ _Recon Flight Three India Four Eight Zulu, requesting clearance to land." The boy on comms spoke with a hint of excitement in his voice. Keith ignored it, noticing something off in the controls. Something was affecting his steering. He started adjusting for it._

 _"_ _Recon flight, you are advised to continue to White Sands. Canaveral is experiencing strong gale-force winds in the upper atmosphere."_

 _So that was it. Keith hit a few controls and addressed the boy. "Upper atmosphere, but not lower?"_

 _The comms officer relayed the question._

 _"_ _Confirmed."_

 _"_ _Is ground control aware that we may not have enough fuel to get to White Sands?"_

 _"_ _Reserves should handle it."_

 _Keith continued to correct for the growing winds. The turbulence was minimal at the moment. He looked at the other two._

 _"_ _I say we land here. Once we get through the winds, it'll be an easy landing."_

 _The engineer stared at him. "Are you sure? Can you adjust your lift in that?"_

 _"_ _Yes, if you can keep everything wide open for me. Can you?"_

 _She bit her lip, glanced at the comms officer, and nodded._

 _"_ _Let's do this, then. Comms, advise ground control."_

 _The boy did, the excitement in his voice increasing as the sim warned against the decision and he overrode it. He and the engineer tightened their seat belts and Keith started the reentry path._

 _He focused like he never had before, letting his instincts guide him as he used the winds buffeting them to add to the drag, adjusting the trajectory constantly. He could hear the gasps from his teammates as the craft shifted sharply to the left once and then dipped. He rode the turbulence like waves, knowing he was in his element._

 _And with one final terrifying shudder that had the engineer's hands scrambling across the controls to check for any damage, they were in the clear and descending smoothly toward the runway._

 _The instant the screen changed to "simulation completed", the comms officer jumped out of his seat and ran for the door._

 _"_ _We did it, didn't we? Did we do it?"_

 _"_ _Do what?" the engineer asked._

 _"_ _We beat the record! Kogane beat out Shirogane's record!"_

 _The door opened, revealing Commander Iverson and Professor Harris. Harris had a huge grin on his face. Iverson looked dumbfounded._

 _"_ _Cadet Kogane, what the hell were you thinking?"_

 _Keith shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"_

* * *

He reached up and stopped the recording, opening his eyes. Pidge's mouth was hanging open while Shiro's expression was delighted. Their expressions helped shake the mildly uneasy feeling of being pushed through the memory, unable to break away from it without disconnecting the device.

"Good choice. Just about everyone from the Garrison can confirm that really happened." Shiro squeezed Keith's shoulder. "I did tell you how proud I was of you, right?"

Keith nodded, still a little embarrassed at Pidge's reaction. She drew in a breath. "That was…incredible. I remember Matt talking about it at the time, but to see it like that… God, Keith, that was amazing."

He shrugged, unaware that he was repeating the exact reaction from the memory. "I just wanted to be done."

Coran finished fiddling with the controls and looked up. "All right, that's one memory recorded and ready. I enjoyed seeing that, Number Four. You and the Red Lion are a natural fit."

Shiro ruffled Keith's hair at his neck, careful not to dislodge the headband. "Ready to get it over with?"

"Almost. It was Red's idea to show this one." Keith drew a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

* * *

 _Keith walked down the ramp from Red's mouth and paused, seeing Commander Iverson and someone in a hazmat suit standing near the gates that led to the main hangars. He removed his helmet, squared his shoulders, and stepped out of his Lion._

 _He went through Red's force field. Shoving his helmet under his left arm, he held out his right hand to shake with the Commander. The faceless medtech got in the way, waving a scanner. "Hold still, we need to check you over for any dangerous pathogens."_

 _Keith's tone was impatient. "I feel perfectly fine. None of us have gotten sick at all. I could…" His voice faded as if something had occurred to him._

 _"_ _Just another minute while these readings come through…"_

 _Keith's view snapped to one side and he gasped "Ow!" He stumbled a little. "What the hell?" His fingers scrabbled along his neck and brought something into view. A tranquilizer dart._

 _The view wobbled as Keith tried to draw his bayard and move back far enough to get inside the force field again, to get his helmet on. But the darts kept coming and finally Keith was reeling forward and losing consciousness._

 _Iverson was there to catch him. "They pulled rank, son. I'm sorry."_

* * *

Keith fumbled for the control to stop the recording and felt Coran do it instead. He scrubbed at his face with his hands, trying to shake off the feelings from the memory: the sudden alarm from the attack followed by the panicked attempt to retreat and the helplessness as he lost control of his body to the tranqs.

Shiro knelt in front of him. "It's okay, it's over. That's a smart choice. It gives us a bit more evidence against Darzi. Iverson can verify it."

Pidge moved behind him, clasping his shoulders. He dragged his hands from his face and reached out, taking her hand and Shiro's hand.

"That was harder than I expected."

Shiro put his other hand on top of Keith's. "Do we need to wait before doing the last one?"

"No, I need to get it over with."

"Okay, we're right here. Just remember, it's over and you survived."

Keith closed his eyes and touched the control once more.

* * *

 _The view was of a dimly lit room, looking up at the ceiling. He looked around, noting the straps holding him down. Beeps punctuated the stillness. He continued to look around, seeing his helmet and armor to one side—_

 _And a woman sprawled on the floor near the door, unconscious._

 _The beeping accelerated with his pulse, triggering an alarm. The door to the room opened, showing Darzi and Perkins. The smile on Darzi's face was anything but friendly._

 _"_ _Now we can talk, Kogane. Just you and me and the right balance of amotrazephine and adrenaline."_

 _The view shook as Keith struggled against his bonds and shouted. "Guard! Hey, somebody! I need help!"_

 _Darzi moved across and hands came down, sealing off his air. "Now, now. None of that. Just give Perkins here a minute to set up the drip and everything will be all right."_

 _The view jerked as Keith tried to shake off the hands, but the pressure increased. He tried to get the medtech's attention but he could produce no more than a rasp in his throat._

 _His blood was pounding through him, roaring like rapids in his ears. His eyesight was dimming, dark spots blooming in his view. And Darzi stared at him with a maniacal gleam, watching eagerly as Keith fought to breathe._

 _"_ _Sir, let go!" Perkins grabbed Darzi's arm, breaking his hold just enough for a trickle of precious oxygen to make it through. Perkins pulled at Darzi again. Finally, finally a hint of sanity emerged and he removed one hand, keeping the other across Keith's mouth._

 _"_ _Do it now!"_

* * *

As his memory and the projection of it dissolved into Red's scarlet aura, Keith groped frantically for the control to stop it, gasping for air. Cool metal fingers deactivated the band and lifted it from his head. He heard a murmur as Shiro passed the device to Coran. Then with a gentle tug, he pulled Keith forward into his arms.

"Breathe, Keith. Slowly. We've got you."

Keith felt Pidge slip into the chair behind him and slide her arms above Shiro's to hug him, pressing her face between his shoulder blades. Their warmth radiated through him and steadied him. _You can breathe. You can breathe._

Coran's voice interrupted, in a low volume so he wouldn't startle them. "All right, it's done and the memories are transferred. I'm going to keep the equipment for recording nearby tomorrow, just in case we need it."

"Thank you, Coran," Shiro replied, not moving from his position. He worked his left hand free and ran it through Pidge's hair, drawing a contented sound from her.

Keith chuckled at that and twisted so he could get one arm around her. "All right, guys. I think I'm okay."

"You sure?" Pidge snuggled into his side. "Because I can stay here, no problem. Group hugs are great."

"Won't feel so great on my knees in a few minutes," Shiro replied. He gave Keith one more squeeze, ruffled his hair, and stood, pulling both Keith and Pidge with him.

 ** _Good cubs,_** Red rumbled. **_Much better this time around._**

 _And what's that supposed to mean?_

But Red ignored his question.

* * *

"You agreed to _what?_ " Darzi surged to his feet, both hands planted on the table in front of him. His lawyer nervously grabbed at one arm to tug him back into his chair.

Neither Iverson nor Benítez batted an eye. She looked sidelong at General Caplan, the appointed judge advocate, who raised his eyebrows at the outburst.

"Lieutenant General, you have managed to act in a detrimental manner against a representative of a foreign government, an _alien_ government—"

"So you're admitting Kogane's an alien!"

The lawyer almost facepalmed. Caplan looked even more confused.

"As my granddaughter would say, care to share what you're smoking? No one is saying any such thing. Kogane and the other four have clearly been accepted into this alien society, trusted to fly these ships. And according to the charges preferred by all parties here, you detained him illegally, conducted illegal assisted interrogations against him, assaulted him, _and nearly killed him._ You should be grateful that we're being allowed to conduct this proceeding ourselves, no matter where it's held. If that princess gets wind of our United Nations, she could very well turn this into a global incident and demand that you be tried in _her_ courts."

Darzi's face reddened in fury, but it appeared that the message was finally getting through. The lawyer quickly jumped in.

"What is the proposed plan?"

Benítez replied, "We will meet here at 0800 hours tomorrow morning, along with medtechs Perkins and Desai as witnesses. The Alteans are going to land their ship twenty miles south of us, on Garrison property but far enough away not to disturb the compound. We will drive out and be shown to the facilities they have. We will be given the chance to ask them questions. Proceedings will open at 0900. Is that all understood?"

Iverson thought he could hear Darzi's teeth grinding together, but the only answer came from the lawyer. "We'll be here."

* * *

Thank you as always for reading/follows/faves/reviews!


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

Reminder: I'm on Twitter and Tumblr under the same username. Come say hi!

* * *

Matt lifted his eyes from his tablet where he had been texting with Mina, Lance's sister. He was hearing all about the family drama after Lance had left again: dad shouting, mother and grandmother crying, his older brother actually trying to chase after him in spite of the media crews outside and Lance using his cloaking device to get back to his pod.

 _Gotta go. Mom just got back. I need to find out if she's made up her mind about going back with us._

 _I can't believe you're even thinking about going back. It's not like Lance, they don't need you to fly one of those lion ship things._

 _They need all the help they can get. I can help run the castle, help with tech support. I want to be out there in the stars again, but on my own terms. Listen, I figure Katie will get back in touch soon. I'll tell her Lance needs to call._

 _OK. Thanks._

Matt set the tablet down and began putting groceries away while Colleen continued to bring them in from the garage. He was drooling almost immediately at seeing so many old favorites.

He paused, one hand in a grocery sack and the other holding a package of Oreo cookies. He was still staring at the blue package when Colleen came in with the last armloads. She dropped the bags on the table and he jumped.

"Are you really going to be okay with going right back out there when you have so much to catch up on?"

"That's the beauty of it, Mom. We can come back. The castle has this thing that the guys call wormhole technology. It lets you cross galaxies in a short time."

Colleen raised an eyebrow. "So why did it take nearly two months for Katie to come back?"

Matt shrugged. "From what I've gathered, they've been going pretty much nonstop with this war until Keith got thrown back here—"

"Exactly! What if he hadn't turned up here? Would you all have come back at all?"

"Of course! I mean, once Lance found Dad and me, there was no way we weren't going to get back here and let everyone know we were okay!"

Colleen bit her lip and looked away.

"Mom, what is it? We used to go on travel adventures all the time. Why is this different?"

"Because we never traveled to a war zone?"

 _Ouch. Okay, yeah. Got me there._

Matt put the cookies down and circled the table to face his mother. "Okay. That's fair. But, the castle is pretty safe. The lions do most of the combat—"

"Which means Katie is constantly in danger."

"True, but it's not quite as dangerous as you think. Katie told us that so far only Lance and Shiro have needed to spend a long time in what they call cryo-pods, these things that can heal really bad injuries, usually in a day or so. But in two months that's only two cases of getting seriously hurt. Katie got a concussion at one point, but she was out of that cryo-pod in an hour and good as new."

He could tell that this was brand new information to his mother; the set of her shoulders shifted up and her expression was almost intrigued. "That…is interesting." She looked out of the nearest window for a moment. "And it's really just the five of them fighting? No other…gunnery men or soldiers fighting from the castle itself? I guess all the fighting is in space, not on a planet?"

"Um, there aren't any others. I mean, yeah, there were lots of us on board when they rescued everyone in the slave camp, but it's just the five of them piloting Voltron. Coran and Allura run the castle by themselves. And that's it."

She jerked back to face him. "What do you mean, that's it?"

Matt held up his hands, showing seven fingers. "I mean, the planet that the princess and Coran are from was destroyed. They're the last two of their kind in the universe. And after Shiro and Katie and the others found the Blue Lion, they finally had enough people to fly Voltron and start trying to do something about the Galra Empire."

"They lost…their entire planet? They're all alone?"

Matt nodded, a little unsure why that fact had grabbed Colleen's attention.

She refocused, looking at the bags still on the table. "Here, help me. Let's get these put away and then find your father. It's time to thrash out the pros and cons properly."

* * *

As Shiro went to the Castle-ship's main entrance to meet the Garrison and Earthforce delegations, he noticed that there were combat robots positioned at regular intervals closer to the entrance. He had his helmet in one hand and brought it up so he could speak into the communicator.

"Coran? Allura? Can someone explain why we have training drones in the hallways?"

"That was my idea," Allura replied. "I had Hunk and Lance help me amass as many drones as possible to station in the hallway between the main entrance and the A.I. room. It occurred to me that we might need a show of strength."

Shiro couldn't argue with that. As great as their technological advantage was, they were still only seven people…and four mice.

 _Does Earthforce know that yet?_

"And Shiro, as soon as you've turned everyone over to Coran, would you position the Black Lion at the entrance? I do hope it will consent to judge Darzi if the assigned punishment from your people isn't enough."

Shiro bit his lip, since he was fairly certain that any punishment outlined by Earthforce's legal codes would not be enough, especially for Allura. In the back of his mind, Black rumbled in agreement.

 _So you really can do that? See into a person's…soul?_

He felt a nudge from Black, asking permission for something. Shiro sent back confused assent.

 ** _Lean back against the wall._**

Shiro did, realizing that at some point in the last day or so that their communication had expanded to include words.

 ** _Let me in, my paladin?_**

Shiro wasn't exactly sure how this worked, but he concentrated on the bond they shared, trying to find a way to open it more. He could feel Black doing something similar, and then—

Black was him and he was Black.

Black watched through his eyes as the hover-jeeps approached. The figures inside were both people and swirling auras of color. Most of them ranged in shades of green and blue and gray.

Shiro looked down at his left hand. He also had an aura, an effervescent white with streaks of pale purple. It was like a cloudy sky with threatening thunderstorms.

He looked back up as the hover-jeeps stopped some twenty yards away. As one person moved to leave the backseat of the second vehicle, they revealed who had been sitting behind them.

The greasy brown of that person sparked a wave of nausea in Shiro. It was polluted, vile, corrupted beyond any hope of cleansing.

 _Three guesses as to who that is, and the first two don't count._

It took a few seconds for Black to work out what Shiro meant, then the lion's presence in the bond rumbled in amusement before turning serious once more.

 ** _When you have the opportunity, confirm to the princess that this creature will be judged._**

Shiro felt Black withdraw, returning their bond to normal. He felt dizzy and shook his head to clear it, grateful for the wall as it held him up. He took a deep breath and put his helmet on. He didn't think an ambush here was likely, but after seeing the sniper attack on Keith in his recorded memory, Shiro was taking no chances.

* * *

As Black withdrew from merging with Shiro, he let one angry growl echo in his hangar.

Red, of course, had been eavesdropping. Her smugness spread through their connection.

Black acknowledged her. **_You were right. There is no question of his guilt. And very little question as to his sanity._**

 ** _Oh, I know. And congratulations on uniting with your paladin. I was sure you'd be the last to do it this time, considering._**

 ** _This paladin…is nothing like the other._** Black growled again, remembering.

Red was quick to distract. **_I agree. All of us are in good hands this time._**

* * *

As he pulled the hover-jeep up to the massive ship, Iverson glanced at the figure waiting for them. He looked again, because it had seemed like Shirogane's eyes were glowing. But then the former Kerberos pilot shook his head and pushed himself away from the wall, putting his helmet on.

Iverson looked down, letting the wave of shame run through him. Beside him, Benítez sucked her cheeks in, seeing the clear sign of distrust and acknowledging that it was earned.

As the black-and-white figure approached, Iverson took in his upright posture and steady stride. He had been so focused on Kogane and then reeling from the revelations that the Garrison team of misfits had risen to some kind of honored rank in an alien culture…he hadn't spared much thought for his former star pupil.

The last time he had seen the young pilot in person, he was in rags, battered and scarred, and being treated like a prisoner. He had been shouting, desperate to communicate something. Iverson had followed the rules for dealing with potential alien contact, rules that were being tested for the first time. They had started their examinations, looking for anything that might be dangerous to humans. And when the one tech had discovered that it wasn't some kind of armor over the actual arm but a replacement…he had followed the book again and sedated him.

But now, Iverson was seeing the full potential of Takashi Shirogane realized. The Garrison's golden boy had been forged into steel through his travails.

As they got out, Iverson moved to be the first in line. They paused, looking at one another, and Iverson's right hand twitched up and then back down when the expected salute from Shirogane failed to materialize.

 _He's not my cadet anymore. He's not part of the Garrison._

"Commander," Shirogane greeted neutrally. His gaze shifted and he nodded to the person behind Iverson. "General."

Benítez took over, introducing the rest of their party. When Darzi was mentioned, Iverson thought once more that a hint of gold flashed through Shirogane's gray eyes.

"If you all will follow me, please."

* * *

Pidge was waiting by the door and waved as she saw Shiro round a corner. "Okay, places everyone!"

Coran tweaked a chair one last time and moved to the panel that controlled the memory display. Allura stood in front of her chair on the raised platform, a little bigger and more substantial than the others. It suggested a throne. Shiro and Lance would be to her left and the rest of the paladins would be to her right. Putting them at a higher level than the rest would emphasize that the delegation was in a place where they held only as much authority as the Alteans were willing to grant.

Below on the floor they had set up a basic layout for the court martial. The judge advocate and the recorder would sit at the center table. The prosecution and defense were set up on the proper sides. A row of chairs behind them were ready for the rest of Earth's delegation.

Pidge took her place between Keith and Hunk. She reached over and grabbed Keith's hand for a final squeeze. Allura noticed and copied Pidge, taking Keith's other hand.

"No matter what happens, he will never touch you again. None of them will touch any of you."

* * *

Benítez tried to keep her gaze straight ahead and not show any nervousness—there were almost certainly cameras monitoring the hallways with these Alteans observing their every move—but it was one of the hardest things she could remember doing. Some kind of sentry automatons lined the hallway, taller than any of them. They showed no visible weapons but she could easily imagine those metal fists had enough power behind them to smash a jaw or some ribs.

The fact that the only movement through these wide hallways was their own made it that much more intimidating.

Shirogane led them into a room with more of the silvery-white walls and pale blue lighting. There was some kind of apparatus in the center, a raised round dais. Furniture was set up on one side, tables and chairs obviously configured to mimic a courtroom.

What was different was the long platform to the side with a row of people standing along it.

Garrett, Holt, Kogane, and McClain, like Shirogane, were in the stylized armor they had seen before. Benítez thought about it briefly: Kogane had been flying the red lion ship that matched his armor. They knew there was a blue lion ship and here was McClain in blue. She took one more look at the others. It was reasonable to assume there were at least three more of these ships: green, yellow, and… where was Shirogane?

The princess took a step forward. Today her gown was white with layers that fell like petals down her arms and skirt: pastel shades of pink, blue, green, yellow, and purple. Her white hair was piled high on her head. She began speaking in accented English, causing several of the delegation who had not been aware of her before to glance at one another. Had she really learned English from the cadets in so short a time? Was there some kind of translation programming happening?

"I am Princess Allura of the planet Altea. Thank you for honoring the Interstellar Charter of Cooperation. Your willingness will be noted should you choose to apply for membership in that alliance through your United Nations organization."

Benítez swallowed at that. They knew about the U.N. and had not used that knowledge against Earthforce yet.

She had to do everything she could to get Darzi convicted. They could _not_ screw this up.

* * *

Keith kept his eyes fixed on the door as introductions were made, watching for Shiro. He didn't dare look at the floor, which might be taken as a sign of fear or dishonesty, and he wasn't about to look at anyone from the delegation and risk making eye contact with Darzi.

"Samuel Perkins, witness for the prosecution."

Keith heard that name and movement drew his eye in spite of himself. The medtech that had quite probably saved his life gave him a small wave and a smile. Keith nodded back briefly before returning his gaze to the door as Shiro slipped inside and moved to his seat.

A new voice broke in, General Caplan's. "Please be seated. The court is now in session."

Benítez read out the list of charges in her role as convening authority. Darzi's lawyer entered the divided pleas: guilty of assault, but not guilty of unlawful imprisonment or attempted manslaughter. Keith kept his eyes on the judge advocate but could feel it every time Darzi stared at him. Red stayed in the back of his mind, ready to spring to his defense.

Benítez and the prosecuting lawyer were prepared. They had copies of every order Darzi had made, from asserting jurisdiction over Iverson to ordering the drugs that had been used. There was written testimony from his conspirators, looking to cut deals for lighter sentences in their own trials.

When Caplan invited the prosecution to bring forward witnesses, Benítez looked toward Keith uncertainly. Allura seized her moment.

"We do have evidence to offer on behalf of our Red Paladin. It is in the form of viewable memories that he recorded in a safe and supportive environment."

The defense lawyer shot to his feet. "Objection! Inadmissible evidence!"

Allura looked down at him, her eyes wintry. "And how do you know that before you have even seen it?"

Caplan frowned but nodded. "Overruled. However, I do have a question on how we are to know these…memories…are real?"

"We have a demonstration that should be easily verified to your satisfaction."

"And is there any way that these recordings can be shared in a format accessible to us for the court's documentation?"

Allura glanced at Pidge, who nodded. She turned back to Caplan. "Yes."

"Then please, demonstrate."

"Coran?"

Keith watched, intrigued at the experience of seeing the memory broadcast around the room in such a way that everyone was looking through his eyes. At the same time he was going through the memory in his mind again.

 _Better keep my eyes shut for the others._

Red purred her agreement.

From his far left, Keith heard Lance mutter something. He picked up the word "showoff" and a hissed reply from Shiro. Whatever Shiro said shut Lance up.

As the memory ended, Iverson laughed aloud. "I will happily verify that this really happened. We can provide Garrison records of it if you insist, General."

Caplan shook his head. "That won't be necessary. The news of three first-year cadets breaking the record on their first try in the assessment sim was a big deal. Kogane's name landed on the short list for possible recruitment to Earthforce's Air Division because of it." He turned to Allura. "I am satisfied. Please describe briefly for the court's records what we will be seeing next."

Shiro stood up. "The first memory shows what happened when our Red Paladin, Kogane, arrived at the Garrison, as agreed between himself and Commander Iverson. This was the point that Lieutenant General Darzi had commandeered the situation, as described previously in these proceedings."

Shiro sat and Keith closed his eyes. Pidge reached over and took his hand in hers. He concentrated on the feel of their fingers interlocking. His ears picked up Hunk snarling under his breath, "Bastards!"

He opened his eyes again when Iverson spoke. "I verify that this is what happened." He sounded a bit shaken.

Caplan admitted the memory into evidence, cross-referencing where it tied in to the prosecution's records. "May we have the final memory?"

Keith felt his heartbeat rising and Pidge tightened her grip on his hand.

 _I don't want to hear this, I can't hear this…_

 ** _I have you, my cub._** Red began purring in his mind, drowning out all other sounds with her presence.

* * *

Lance was fighting to stay still. He wanted to fidget, to let his heel drum on the platform or snap his fingers or something. The tension in the room had been building since the judge advocate had allowed the recorded memories to be shown. Lance assumed it was coming from the defense; Darzi's eyes burned like coals and he spent long intervals staring at Keith. The defense lawyer kept plucking at his arm to try and get him to stop.

The first memory distracted Lance. He remembered this very well; he had been through the same sim the previous day and chosen the White Sands option, only to crash in attempting an emergency landing because he had used too much fuel in the asteroid belt. At the time he had seethed over the news that some other cadet had not only broken Takashi Shirogane's record but smashed it by a full ten seconds.

Seeing the actual flight, Lance felt his jealousy of Keith surface for the first time in ages. Keith was focused, in control, communicating effectively with his crew, and obviously streets better as a pilot. Lance had been nervous and would not stop talking to the others, driving the comms officer to actually yell at him. The news that he had been placed in cargo class before the round of qualifying tests had finished had been an especially bitter pill to swallow.

 _But it was what everyone expected of me at the time…_

Still stinging from the conversation with his father, Lance grumbled to himself as they watched Keith navigate the high winds. "Does he have to be such a showoff?"

Next to him, Shiro whispered sharply, "Lance! Stow it!"

Lance spent a few minutes letting his resentment bleed over to Shiro for defending Keith, like always, fueled by the judge advocate's compliments. Then Blue poked him in his mind, telling him to look at Keith, and he glanced over.

Keith was sitting ramrod stiff, his eyes shut tight. Pidge was holding his hand and watching him, not even paying attention as the second memory began to play.

 _What the hell? Why isn't he watching?_

Lance looked up just in time to see memory-Keith pull a tranquilizer dart from his neck. His own heartrate jumped, the second-hand fear from the attack filling the room as they watched. Lance could _feel_ Keith's fright as he lost control of his body and tumbled forward.

Keith had been completely helpless, about to lose consciousness knowing that he was defenseless. Knowing from Iverson's words that he was not in a friendly situation.

Blue began purring at him, trying to soothe him.

He glanced over again. Pidge still had Keith's hand. Hunk looked furious. Allura looked ready to shoot lasers from her eyes and Shiro's jaw was clenched.

Shiro cut his eyes to Lance without turning his head and he tried to apologize with just a look. Shiro gave him a tiny nod in response and focused forward once more.

"May we have the final memory?"

* * *

Hunk was doing everything he could to try and stay calm. Keith was sitting right there, safe on the other side of Pidge. And yet seeing first-hand when he was taken prisoner and now nearly being killed was incredibly stressful. Hunk's stomach was roiling and his thoughts were buzzing with the need to break some heads.

Yellow's presence in his thoughts grew. **_Be calm. The attacker will be punished._**

It still stressed him out, watching as Keith fought to breathe, as Darzi's eyes seemed to descend into madness. It was only when the medtech broke his grip on Keith and the memory ended that Hunk discovered he had been holding his own breath. He inhaled sharply and Pidge spared him a glance. Hunk huffed and nodded at her that he was all right.

At least until Darzi's lawyer jumped to his feet.

"I find these 'memories' inadmissible! There is nothing here that proves definitively that they are Kogane's memories. We can't see anything that identifies the person! And in the second one we can't see that my client's hands are fully blocking his air, only that he's trying to shake him off!"

Several voices erupted at once.

"Excuse me, you can see _me_ in the first one and I know damn well it happened!"

"Of course he couldn't breathe! Didn't you feel him try to cry out? He couldn't because _he had no air available!"_

"How do we know that wasn't a hallucination from those drugs they gave him?"

"Order! I want order!"

General Caplan's shout got everyone's attention, but Hunk was more worried than ever. Darzi looked way too pleased that people were questioning Keith's memory. If his lawyer demanded a cross-examination after all…

One of the people in the row of spectator seats stood.

"You want proof this is true? I can do that."

Everyone turned to him and Iverson frowned. "Perkins? What are you talking about?"

The tall, lanky man looked around the room. He drawled, "If you need another view so you can see that it's him, I got you covered." He zeroed in on Coran standing by the console. "Hook me up to this thing."

* * *

Thanks as always for reading/favoriting/following/comments!

I *think* this will end up at 26 chapters. No matter what, we are very close to the end.


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

Reminder: I'm on Twitter and Tumblr under the same username. Come say hi!

* * *

At the defense lawyer's insistence, he and the prosecutor hovered as Coran got Perkins settled into a chair near the control panel, placed the metal band on his head, and explained how to use it.

The defense lawyer glared. "I want a demonstration, like we had with Kogane."

Perkins looked up at him, then his expression shifted to amusement. "Careful what you wish for, fella." He closed his eyes and reached up to touch the control. As everyone in the room watched, the memory sprang to life and Perkins followed General Benítez through a door.

 _The room was filled with people sitting around a table. They stood at the general's entrance and those in military uniforms saluted. Iverson and Darzi were sitting far apart from one another. Then Darzi realized who had entered with Benítez. His face contorted in rage._

 _"_ _Perkins! What are you doing here? You said you wouldn't report on it!"_

 _Benítez looked from one to the other, then answered coldly, "Lieutenant General, you will be explaining that statement to me immediately after this briefing. In the meantime, sit down, everyone." As they did, she began handing out copies of a report._ _"_ _Everyone take one. These papers will be gathered and destroyed immediately after this meeting. Is that understood?"_

 _There was agreement all around. She began speaking again._

 _"_ _So far we have had a battle of jurisdiction over former Galaxy Garrison cadet Keith Kogane. On the one hand he is from the Garrison and reported there willingly after he crashed in an alien ship at Mount Rushmore. On the other hand, Earthforce is the body to assess threats on an interstellar level. I will state that I am not pleased at how this has been handled so far. Iverson should have been given the chance to talk to Kogane before any aggressive action was taken and the leap to trying to force information from him happened much too soon."_

Perkins reached up and tapped the control to stop the memory. Coran moved to transfer the data into a permanent file—Pidge would be sorting exactly how to alter all these memories into something Earthforce could keep.

As he worked, Coran kept an eye on the Earthers. The defense lawyer's slumped shoulders suggested that he had reached the end of his objections. Iverson, Benítez, and Darzi were all clearly visible in the memory, a memory that they had just seen being produced by Perkins.

Darzi himself looked like he had uncovered an entire nest of _xznly squiwl_ and their mother. Not only could he not deny the validity of the memory device now, it was yet another instance of him acting with guilt.

Benítez was on top of that as well. "We want that demonstration included as evidence, please."

Caplan nodded. "Done. We're ready for the next one."

Shiro spoke up. "We're not." He turned and looked past Allura. "Pidge, Keith, go and wait in the lounge near the command deck. One of us will come get you when we're done."

Coran nodded in approval. He noticed Pidge looking a bit irritated that she was being singled out because of her age. But Shiro had played that excellently—neither Pidge nor Keith would argue because ultimately they were supporting and protecting the other.

Coran's own nerves tightened when he realized that Darzi was staring at Keith until he was out of sight. He had been unsure about Allura using the lions as arbiters due to the potential for a diplomatic mess. But now…now he agreed with her. There was something dangerous about the man.

* * *

Allura could feel the tension in the room build as everyone began focusing on the second memory from this man Perkins. It seemed that this unexpected development could be the decider on the charge of attempted manslaughter.

"All right, here we go." Perkins' laconic statement jarred with the strain showing on most of the faces in the room.

 _The doors slid open, showing the young woman, Desai, slumped in the floor and spattered with coffee. So Darzi's claim that he would deal with whoever was guarding Kogane amounted to drugging an innocent woman._

 _Kogane himself was regarding them warily. Perkins looked him over: younger than he had expected from Darzi's talk, with heavy dark hair and wide eyes that were almost Elizabeth Taylor violet. As he moved to turn off the alarm on the monitor, Darzi approached Kogane and the boy tried to move back._

 _"_ _Now we can talk, Kogane. Just you and me and the right balance of amotrazephine and adrenaline."_

 _Perkins didn't like the eagerness in Darzi's voice. Neither did Kogane, who began struggling against the straps that kept him pinned to the gurney. He shouted, "Guard! Hey, somebody! I need help!"_

 _Darzi nudged him and he moved to the counter where the supplies were. As he extracted a bag of saline from a cabinet, Kogane's cries were cut off and Darzi spoke._

 _"_ _Now, now. None of that. Just give Perkins here a minute to set up the drip and everything will be all right."_

 _Perkins searched a drawer for the syringes he would need. Then the sounds in the background registered, of shifting around, of a wheel on the gurney fighting its brake, of Darzi's grunt as he put effort into something._

 _Perkins turned and his stomach dropped at the sight. Instead of Darzi simply stifling Kogane's cries for help, he had both hands planted across the boy's face. As Kogane twisted in desperation, trying to get loose, Darzi moved with him and pressed down harder. The boy's skin was already red and darkening around his eyes._

 _The floor shook underneath him and a lion's roar echoed around the building like thunder, but Perkins barely registered it as he leaped across the room._

 _"_ _Sir, let go!" Perkins seized Darzi's arm and pulled, but for several seconds he resisted, his eyes locked with Kogane's. Perkins pulled harder and managed to get one hand loose._

 _Darzi seemed to wake up from whatever state he had been in and stopped fighting, but kept the remaining hand in a tight grip over the boy's mouth. "Do it now!"_

 _Perkins hesitated, wanting to check Kogane's vitals, and the rhythm of the monitors dipped as his breathing and pulse slowed. Darzi lit up with fury, stepping back and almost hopping in agitation. "Not again! Did you give him the adrenaline yet? Add more!"_

 _Perkins took a long, slow look at the monitors, showing levels approaching unconsciousness. His gaze returned to Kogane, noting the bruises forming on his face. He reached over to open one eye, revealing a sclera full of blood._

 _"_ _Do you realize how close you came to killing him?"_

 _"_ _All I did was stop him from making noise! Wake him now! Add more adrenaline!"_

 _Perkins considered the situation. The unresponsive boy bound to the gurney. His coworker, a sweet young woman, drugged and sprawled in the floor. "I haven't started the amotrazephine yet."_

 _"_ _What? But his vitals slowed, just like before!"_

 _"_ _That reaction didn't happen until the second dose, according to the report I read. There's something else going on here, like he's found a way to withdraw physically and mentally from the situation. I've read about catatonia, but I've never witnessed a case personally and I've never heard of anyone being able to control it like this."_

 _"_ _Well, then, use the adrenaline first! Or another stimulant! Or get the defibrillator and run some volts through him!"_

 _He stepped in between Darzi and the defenseless Kogane. "Sir, you are out of control. I understand that you want answers, but you are overstepping a line here."_

 _"_ _Now you listen here—"_

 _"_ _No,_ you _listen." Perkins leaned over Darzi, doing his best to intimidate the other man. "I will summon backup from security guards who aren't in your squad and press for a tribunal in which I will testify unless you back off_ now. _"_

Allura didn't realize she was shaking until Shiro laid his hand over hers and gripped it tightly. She could hear Lance whispering, "Oh god, oh god, oh god…"

On her other side, something crunched. She glanced over and saw that Hunk had broken the armrest of his chair with his grip.

"Don't move, paladins," Shiro growled. "Give them the chance to do the right thing."

* * *

The silence in the room was profound. Each small sound was magnified as Perkins handed off the headband to Coran and returned to his seat. Every person in the room seemed to be trying their best to avoid looking at Darzi, except for the row of people on the raised platform.

Finally, Benítez and the prosecutor traded looks. Benítez cleared her throat and spoke. "With this final piece of evidence, the prosecution rests."

Caplan's hands shifted the papers in front of him. "The defense may make their presentation."

Darzi's lawyer, pale as a sheet, stood. "The defense has no further evidence to present."

Darzi's head snapped up. "What? Aren't you going to cross-examine him? What about Kogane? What about the results of that blood test?"

Both Allura and Shiro paid fast attention to that.

"Irrelevant," Caplan stated flatly. "We have seen, through a method that has been proven accurate to the satisfaction of this court, that you nearly killed an innocent man while he was completely at your mercy!"

The defense lawyer sat down.

Darzi jumped to his feet. "He's an alien! He's a threat!"

Allura couldn't help it. She let out a laugh that was dripping with scorn. "I'm sorry, but what? He's from your planet!"

The lieutenant general whirled to face her. "How long ago did you send him to infiltrate us?"

As the rest of the Earth delegation looked at Darzi with varying levels of disbelief, Shiro grabbed Lance's elbow. "Go get Keith and Pidge. Have her bring her equipment for making the files accessible to Earth tech."

* * *

As they waited, Pidge and Keith were a study in contrasts. She was moving constantly, pacing the room from one side to the other.

Keith sat, watching and waiting and trying his best not to imagine what Perkins was showing the rest of them.

Pidge spun and flopped down on the curved couch opposite him. "Ugh! I know Shiro means well, but why me?"

Keith's mouth quirked up at one corner. "Why did he ask you to babysit me?"

She immediately realized what she had said. "Oh, no. No, I didn't mean that I wouldn't want to help, Keith. It's just…the _assumption_ that I'm too young to face things. Or because I'm a girl. I've already got one big brother in my life. Shiro doesn't need to protect me like this."

"I'd have chosen you as well."

"What? Why? You traitor!"

"Well, who would you rather have sitting with your teammate, who you shoved out of the room to prevent him witnessing his own near death? Lance would talk my ear off and drive me crazy. Hunk would worry himself into hypertension and try to make me eat. Trust me, you are much better company even when you're pissed off."

Pidge tilted her head and considered. "Okay, you've got me there. They'd drive me up a wall as well." She got up and moved to sit with him.

"Thank you." Keith put his arm around her shoulders and she relaxed. He looked for a way to change the subject. "So, when do you think Matt will be ready to come back?"

Pidge snorted. "A week. Two, tops. He just wants enough time to catch up on his shows or pirate them all. But he'll wait and see if he can help Dad convince Mom to join us."

"I hope she does." Keith leaned into her. "That would help Shiro so much."

Pidge pulled back and gave him a _look._ "You would benefit, too, you know."

"I'll…I'll get over it."

Now her chin was jutting toward him. "Sure, eventually. But wouldn't it be nice to get over it faster? By having someone totally non-judgmental to talk to who can share coping mechanisms and healthy ways to deal with setbacks when they happen?

Keith snorted. "Doesn't sound like any therapist I ever met."

"Well, then you met a bad one."

He raised an eyebrow. "And the other five?"

Pidge frowned. "Seriously?"

He shrugged. "Foster kid."

Those two words stopped Pidge cold. Keith regretted saying it immediately. Pidge was too smart, too imaginative, not to grasp the implications. Keith could see her trying to think of what she could say that would be supportive but not pitying. But before she could, Lance charged into the room.

They stood and Pidge started to ask, "Are they d—"

She jumped back as Lance flung himself onto Keith in a giant bear hug, their armor clattering together.

"Dude! Oh, god, Keith!"

Keith reached up to awkwardly pat Lance's shoulder. "I'm gonna guess it was worse seeing his memory?"

Lance nodded against Keith's shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay. That was scary."

Oddly enough, Lance's reaction made Keith feel a bit more balanced. He had people on his side besides Shiro.

Pidge moved in, worming her way under Lance's arm. "Either break it up or let me in. No hugs in my presence without me. New rule."

That got a laugh out of Lance and he shifted to include her. Keith put an arm around each of them.

Satisfied, Pidge asked, "Are they ready for us?"

"Yeah, come on. I think they're done with all the evidence. And they want you to start changing the files so they can play them at the Garrison or whatever."

Pidge grinned. "With pleasure."

* * *

Iverson felt like he was trapped in an emotional zero-G chamber. Everything was loose and floating and there was no way to get purchase anywhere. He had just seen Perkins' memory of the attack, straight out of a detective show except it had been so much worse. The difference between some actor jerking around and making noise and Kogane fighting so hard to breathe that blood vessels in his eyes had burst…Iverson expected he would have nightmares over it.

Then Darzi came out with his wild accusation that Kogane was an alien. And doubled down by claiming that the princess had been the one to send him. Iverson saw from across the room that she and Shirogane had each other's hands in a tight grip. Once again, they looked like friends instead of colleagues and he couldn't tell which one was holding the other back.

The others returned, Katie Holt carrying her laptop. Iverson wanted to kick himself over that situation. With her haircut and the glasses, she looked almost exactly like a younger version of her brother. She trotted across to the red-haired man and set up to work on the files.

McClain kept himself between Darzi and Kogane. That was another surprise, learning of the rise of "No-Chance Lance". Iverson had included a written reprimand in the responsible faculty member's file after hearing about that nickname. The boy had been a perfectly capable cargo pilot. He had risen to the top of that tier through his own hard work and positioned himself to be moved up after the situation with Kogane grew too volatile to keep allowing him chances. Iverson had ridden him hard, hoping to find more potential in there somewhere.

Once they were seated, the princess turned to Kogane. "Keith, would you describe again when you were exposed to Quintessence?"

He looked confused at that. "I can, but wouldn't it be more efficient to…" He gestured at the console for the memory device.

"It would, if you're up for it."

He nodded and went over to join Pidge.

A fuming Darzi shouted, "What's the point of this?"

Caplan glared at him. "As of this moment, you need to sit down and stop talking before I add contempt of court to your charges."

The princess spoke again. "You referred to a blood test? One that showed some sort of anomaly?"

Benítez glanced at Caplan, who nodded his permission for her to answer. "Yes. The meeting you all saw in the first memory from Perkins was me sharing the results of a blood test that was not done immediately as it should have been."

The princess nodded. "I expect the incident you are about to see is the cause of that. Coran, when you're ready."

Along with everyone else, Iverson watched as Kogane left some sort of communications post and followed a sinister hooded figure. Kogane was discovered and promptly went into attack mode. He used the jetpack on his armor to vault into a surprise attack, but the hooded figure generated some kind of energy to block him. The backlash flung Kogane into a wall, his right hand covered in second- and third-degree burns.

 _"_ _Pidge! I need an extraction_ now _! Hurry!"_

Iverson nodded in approval. Before, Kogane would have kept fighting until he was taken down. This Kogane had finally found a team he could trust enough to ask for help.

Kogane was in full-on evade mode, dodging the lightning-like attacks from the enemy. Then he landed badly and was dragged down a moving conveyor belt until he was backed against one of the glass vats full of some golden substance. Iverson's heart was pounding, watching as the hooded figure moved in with another attack building around its hand…

And then there was an enormous crash that shook the room. The enemy's attack broke open the vat instead of hitting its target and Kogane was drenched in the liquid.

 _"_ _Get in, we gotta get Shiro and Allura!"_

Kogane jumped into the lion's mouth. As it took off, he looked down at his hand.

Before everyone's eyes, the burns shrank and then vanished, leaving his hand completely healed.

As the projection ended, Perkins spoke up. "That would explain him healing so fast from Darzi's attack. His eyes were completely back to normal within hours instead of days. Bruising was gone. I take it this happened recently?"

"Less than a day before I got thrown here," Kogane replied.

Darzi yelled, "That still doesn't explain—"

"Lieutenant General, this is your final warning!" Caplan interrupted him. "Everyone, please return to your places."

They obeyed, all but Pidge as she continued to work on the files. Kogane passed McClain on the way to his chair and McClain leaned forward to stage-whisper, "I told you not to go investigating on your own!"

"Shut up," Kogane replied, but his tone was good-natured. As he sat, the princess reached over for his hand. He turned his hand over to clasp hers.

Iverson raised an eyebrow. That was something else that Kogane would not have done before.

* * *

Shiro watched as Caplan used his tablet to put every piece of evidence in order. He heard a satisfied "Done!" from Pidge, who did something with the console to connect it to her new smartphone and then brought the phone over to the judge advocate. "With your permission, sir?"

Caplan handed the tablet over and she transferred files to it. He played the first one long enough to verify that it worked and nodded. He took one more look at the array of information before him before looking up.

"Given that the defense has ended its arguments, does the prosecution have a rebuttal?"

"No, General."

"Then we will move on to closing arguments. What does the prosecution wish to say?"

The lawyer responded, "We feel that the evidence is overwhelming in showing that Lieutenant General Manendra Darzi illegally detained, assaulted, and attempted to kill former Galaxy Garrison cadet Keith Kogane. We ask for the maximum sentencing possible in this situation."

Caplan nodded. "Defense? Closing arguments?"

The defense lawyer shook his head. Darzi threw him a disbelieving look.

Caplan nodded again. "Then we move to extenuation and mitigation. It is my official opinion that Lieutenant General Manendra Darzi deserves a fuller punishment than it is within my power to give in a special court-martial. However, we are limited in what we can do. Sentence will be one year of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds pay per month for that same year, followed by a bad-conduct discharge from Earthforce. Lieutenant General, you will have three days to set up your affairs and report to Fort Leavenworth."

Shiro drew in a deep breath and braced himself for what was coming as Allura turned to him.

"What does that mean? How long is a year?"

Shiro ran through the time terms he had picked up during his captivity. "It's our equivalent of three hundred sixty-five quintants. One revolution of our planet around its sun."

"You mean a _deca-phoeb_? Just one? For nearly killing a paladin of Voltron?" Her voice rose to a near-shriek.

"And he's being kicked out of Earthforce! That's big, Allura. That's going to make the rest of his life insanely difficult." Shiro tried to reason with her, seeing the growing tension among the delegation members.

On her other side, Keith tugged at the hand he still held. "Princess, it's all right."

She whirled to face him. "No, it's not! Keith, you are _important_ , not just to we Alteans but to the entire universe! Without you we can't form Voltron and without Voltron we cannot hope to stop Zarkon! And _that creature_ nearly killed you!" She focused on Caplan, who returned her gaze warily. "What is the difference between special and general in these proceedings?"

Caplan pressed his lips together, considering what to say. But Benítez spoke up with a voice full of venom. "A general court-martial would have allowed us to classify the assault and attempted manslaughter as felony charges instead of misdemeanors. Punishments include much longer times of imprisonment, a dishonorable discharge instead of a bad-conduct one, and when warranted, death."

"And why was this court-martial classified as special instead?"

Benítez bit her lip, but looked Allura straight in the eye. "Because Darzi has a couple of like-minded friends in our government. Powerful friends."

Allura looked over at Shiro, her expression clearly conveying her expectations.

Shiro reflected for a minute. What loyalty he had once had for the Garrison had been pretty well smashed to smithereens with how they had treated him when he returned to Earth the first time. The fact that they had repeated the mistakes with Keith and exacerbated them tenfold turned the smithereens to dust. Plus there were the indications that Darzi was obsessively, maybe dangerously paranoid over the possibilities of alien life. And they had no idea how many people within Earthforce and their own government might share Darzi's beliefs at a time where Earth would need alliance with at least one set of aliens if they had any chance of surviving the Galra.

It wasn't that hard of a decision, really.

* * *

Hunk made it a point to stick close to Keith. There was no bailiff here to put cuffs on Darzi and Hunk had no idea where to find some. Lance had the same idea, staying on Keith's other side and summoning his bayard to his hand.

Shiro took point, leading the Earth delegation out, and they all followed. As Darzi passed the first pair of simulator drones, they moved to march on either side of the convict. Hunk searched and then saw Pidge, carrying her open laptop in one hand and typing furiously with the other. He shot her a thumbs-up and she gave him a knowing grin.

Hunk realized they had slowed down and frowned. The delegation was pausing, looking up at something. Shiro had walked out some distance from the doors.

"What's going on? What is that?" Darzi's tone was shrill.

Allura swept by him to stand next to Shiro and turned. "This is the Black Lion, the head of Voltron. You have had your chance to render justice and have been found wanting. As princess of Altea, I ask the Black Lion to weigh the accused and find innocence or guilt in his intentions and actions."

Caplan moved forward. "Wait, you can't do that! You can't try someone for the same charges twice!"

Allura turned winter-blue eyes on him. " _You_ can't. Altea is far out of your jurisdiction." Hunk shivered a little at how scary she was.

Darzi shouted, "I won't do it! You have no authority over me!"

"That state of affairs ended the moment you attacked our Red Paladin."

Far above them, the giant black mechanical lion roared. The earth around them trembled. Darzi squawked in fear and tried to run for one of the jeeps.

Before Hunk or Lance could react, the simulator bots caught up to Darzi and grabbed his arms. They dragged him back to a spot several feet in front of Shiro and Allura. Shiro looked up to his lion.

Without warning, his eyes took on a shining golden glow.

* * *

 ** _Look again, my paladin. Up close and without obstruction._**

Shiro did, seeing once again that vile dark aura overlaying Darzi's physical body.

 ** _Now, look around._**

He did, distantly noting that a lot of them were reacting in shock and fright over something. The humans showed those shades of blue, green and gray, some stronger than others. Allura and Coran were a vivid magenta-pink.

The other paladins were white. Hunk was white sand streaked with desert gold. Lance was whitecaps and the foam of the sea, liquid blue running through. Pidge was a pattern of white flower petals intertwined with green leaves. And Keith was white smoke and white ash, sparking with red embers, overlaid with hints of blue and green.

 ** _The effects of the Quintessence still mark the Red Paladin. They will fade with time._**

Shiro understood. The only person who came anywhere close to matching Darzi was the defense lawyer. His aura was gray sludge, like dirty dishwater. But even as Shiro looked, the gray was gradually losing some of its murky quality and hints of sky blue emerged.

 ** _The aura reflects the person, their beliefs and thoughts. This one is retreating from his negative thoughts._**

Shiro looked at Darzi again. There was no retreat to be seen here. Darzi was convinced that he was in the right, that he was supposed to find out all he could about Keith before…

Before arranging an "accident". He had made the decision to kill Keith as soon as he had seen the anomalous blood test. The attempt at suffocation had been a mistake, losing his control in front of a witness. But Darzi had intended to end "the alien threat" before anyone came looking for Keith.

Black leaned deeper into the link with Shiro. **_Will you be my voice, my paladin?_**

 _I will._

* * *

As they all watched, Shiro drew breath and spoke. His voice echoed with a deep rumble under his voice.

 **"** **You have been examined and judged and found wanting. Your thoughts run to extremes of delusion and fear. And your response is to attack, maim, and slaughter instead of parley. You are not safe. You will be given the opportunity for introspection and redemption, but it must come from within you alone."**

Shiro's eyes lost that golden gleam and he staggered. Allura grabbed him, holding him upright.

A wide sun-yellow beam of light leapt from the lion's eyes and engulfed Darzi. He screamed, trying to duck and pull himself free from the drones. The light intensified and suddenly everyone could see the viscous dark silhouette that was his life force. The light vanished, taking the aura's visibility with it, and Darzi collapsed, hanging limp between the drones. There was no expression in his staring eyes.

Caplan was the first to react. "What did you do? Did you kill him?"

 **"** **No."**

Everyone jumped at the growling tones coming from a new source.

Keith's eyes were flickering with brilliant gold flames.

 **"** **The offender will stay trapped within his own mind, given the time and opportunity to examine himself and his motives. Should he ever realize his misguided intentions, his false beliefs, should he repent of his actions, he will return to awareness."**

Caplan's expression darkened. "That wasn't your call to make!"

 **"** **He tried to kill my paladin. You should be grateful that he still lives, that your buildings still stand."**

Lance reached over and shook Keith's shoulder. "Um, Red? It's Red, isn't it? Maybe not the best idea?"

With one more vicious growl, the glow vanished from Keith's eyes. He pitched forward and both Lance and Hunk jumped to catch him.

Allura pulled Shiro's cybernetic arm over her shoulders. "Coran, help me. We need to get them to their rooms." She scrutinized the delegation, focusing on Iverson and Benítez. "You are free to return to your base and make arrangements for his care. Pidge will arrange the delivery of long-range scanning technology to help you watch for the Galra or other threats. My paladins will be in regular contact with their families and if there is any sign, any at all, that they are being harassed or threatened, we will return and address the issue at once." She shifted as Coran took some of Shiro's weight. "I bid you all goodbye."

The _good riddance_ was clear from her tone.

* * *

One more chapter to go, I think ! Thank you as always for reading, favoriting/following, and commenting!


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: If you recognize the characters, they aren't mine. Just playing in Dreamworks' sandbox.

Reminder: I'm on Twitter and Tumblr under the same username. Come say hi!

* * *

They started for the paladins' quarters, Hunk carrying Keith, Allura and Coran supporting Shiro. They were only halfway to their destination when Keith groaned and opened his eyes in confusion.

"What the hell?"

"You passed out, dude. You had the glowy-eye thing going on just like Pidge." Hunk shifted to hold him more securely.

Keith groaned again and let his head fall back. "A little warning next time, Red?"

 ** _I will try. But a declaration needed to be made._**

Allura stumbled, her mouth open in shock, but quickly righted herself. The movement caught Keith's notice and he looked at her.

"Put me down, Hunk."

"Keith, you just had a lion knock you out by being in your head. That's not the best way to recover."

"I'm fine. Put me down." Keith started kicking to get loose and Hunk relented, keeping an arm around him until he was sure Keith wasn't going to keel over again. When he spotted Shiro being supported by the Alteans, he tried to get out of Hunk's grip. "What's wrong with Shiro?"

"He's okay!" Lance grabbed Keith's free arm. "He just passed out like you did after Black finished talking through him!"

"Oh, right. Sorry, I remember now." Keith relaxed and they let go of him. He turned his attention back to Allura, a frown on his face. "I asked you before, Princess. What does it mean to merge with the lions?"

She looked around at them. Hunk and Lance were confused and a little frightened. Pidge was wary but also curious. Coran seemed to be trying to hide behind Shiro. Her tongue darted out to run across her lips.

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what is happening. Let's go to the lounge, get Shiro settled, and I'll explain what I know."

* * *

By the time they reached the lounge, Shiro was also awake and mostly walking on his own with a little help from Coran. Allura's eyes kept flitting between him and Keith, her expression uncertain.

Once they were all seated, Shiro looked around. "Okay, what happened out there? The last thing I remember is Black…rendering judgment?"

Pidge snorted at that. "Oh yes, he did. Turned that bastard into a drooling turnip. And when the judge questioned it, Red got in on the act."

Shiro turned to Keith in concern. "She did? Are you all right?"

Keith shrugged. "I should be asking you that. Wasn't my first time."

That made Allura sit up and now Shiro had a visual reference for "tearing one's hair out": the princess reached up, digging her fingers into her elegant up-do and pulling in frustration.

"How? How are the two of you awake and coherent? It took my father ages to recover after he merged with the Red Lion!"

That got all the paladins' attention.

"Whoa, your dad was the Red Paladin once?" Lance's voice was eager.

"Did it happen with all the paladins?" Pidge leaned forward, adjusting her glasses.

 ** _My paladin, ask for patience. This will be difficult for her._**

Shiro did so immediately. "Knock it off, everyone! Let Allura tell it her way."

There was instant silence. As they waited for Allura to gather her thoughts, Shiro sought Keith's gaze. Keith nodded slightly toward Pidge, who was sitting beside him. Shiro got the message: the three of them needed to compare notes at some point. He gave a tiny nod of agreement back.

"When my father was a paladin, his team accomplished many great things. They discovered abilities in the lions and were at times in a constant state of astonishment as they fought the enemy."

"Like jawblades?" Shiro asked.

Coran nodded. "And that rail gun on the Red Lion."

The other paladins turned to Keith.

"Rail gun? Is that what I saw cut all the way across and take out one of those border rings? That was you?" Lance asked. "How did you activate it?"

Keith raised his hands palms-up. "I…I'm not sure. Zarkon had just thrown us into the command ship with some kind of energy whip and Red wasn't responding at first. I just kind of…reached further for her. And then it appeared and went off."

Something tickled in the back of Shiro's mind. Black wasn't coming out and saying it, but hinting that all the paladins would be able to do something like this. But this was getting them off track. "Okay, back to the point. Is this…merging another example?"

Allura shrank back a little. "One time, we had a situation rather like this one. There was a race, the Varubans, who had a technology that worked essentially like miniature wormholes. Trigel, the Green Paladin, fell through one into another sector of space. The planet she arrived at, Fisadore, was very isolationist. They lured her out of her lion with promises of starting diplomatic talks, then imprisoned her. They put her on trial for the sins of all races who had acted against them when the rest of the paladins arrived.

"Green chose that moment to merge with Trigel and distract the court, making some pronouncement about their small-minded and oversimplified views. According to Father, they convinced some of the Fisadori that their goddess was seriously displeased with them and speaking through Trigel. The Green Lion timed the speech to end just as Father and the others brought their lions down in the public square next to the building."

Allura wrung her hands. "Trigel took hours to wake and it was at least eight _quintants_ before she could leave her bed. She had no strength—others had to help her with everything. And she couldn't explain what had happened. The best she could describe was that her mind had been invaded and the lion was using her voice to speak." Allura looked up at Shiro. "Just like you."

Shiro nodded. "But Black didn't invade. He asked my permission, both times."

"Both times? When was the first?" Allura's voice rose, trembling, and Shiro realized just how much trouble she was having accepting this. Whatever the lions had been like in her time, it was clear that things were very different now.

 ** _Quite different. You are younger. You are more open to working with us as partners instead of seeing us as tools._**

"Is it really that simple?"

Shiro hadn't realized that he had asked that aloud until everyone was looking at him.

* * *

Coran kept his arm around Allura, trying to offer as much support as he could. Allura had barely left her toddler stage when the other paladins had brought a weak and barely conscious Trigel back to the Castle of Lions. He hadn't realized that she remembered so much, of the confusion and fear as, one by one, each of the paladins went through the merging process and collapsed into a state of profound, lingering weakness.

Except Zarkon. At the time the prevalent theory was that Zarkon was somehow stronger than the other paladins, that he had proven his mastery over his lion where the others had been weak and lost control, allowing themselves to be possessed. The others had fought to avoid it happening a second time.

Now, Coran wondered if the reverse were true. Shiro had been the first to connect with his lion at a deep enough level to fly blind. He didn't have all the details of the battle, but he knew that somehow Shiro and the Black Lion had been separated, Keith had gone in and prevented Zarkon from taking it, and Shiro had gotten back in time for them to save Keith and the Red Lion.

 _Teamwork. Real teamwork. These five fit together better than the original paladins ever did._

The first paladins had stated their commitment to the cause, had delighted in discovering the capabilities of Voltron, had socialized and appeared to be friends. But there had always been a faint undercurrent of trepidation, of never quite letting go of diplomacy. A question of when—not if—one of them would choose their own planet over the greater good.

This group of young Earthers had arrived already functioning as a team. They knew they didn't have all the answers and looked to the lions as guides. There was even a casual affection in the way they spoke to and about them: Black, Red, Blue…

"Is it really that simple?" Shiro's non sequitur threw them all briefly.

Then the paladins' expressions shifted to recognition and Coran realized. Shiro was talking to the Black Lion.

"Is what simple, Number One?"

Shiro glanced over at him. "From what Black says, it sounds like we're the first paladins to treat the lions as equals, even though that should be obvious. I mean, they're sentient. Blue was communicating with Lance within minutes of him sitting in the pilot's seat. At some point Black started using words with me—have any of you gotten there yet?"

There was a round of affirmative answers from the other paladins and Coran felt his eyebrows reach for his hairline. Alfor had certainly never described anything of the kind to him. Perhaps a search of the archives for Alfor's journals was in order.

Allura sat up a little at that. "Father never said anything about the Red Lion _talking_ to him!" She turned to Keith.

He held his hands out. "I'm really not sure when it started happening, but yeah. Sometime in the last several days the feelings from Red just turned into thoughts. She definitely called to me the first time we merged, pulled me in to try and protect me."

Pidge's expression turned hard and she looked up into the air and hissed, "Green?" After a pause, she seemed to relax slightly. "Green says it was sort of an accident with us. We were both so furious when we found out about Darzi trying to kill Keith that we just sort of fused before we knew what was happening. She says she'll be more careful in the future."

"So wait, what exactly does this feel like?" Hunk was fidgeting nervously.

Coran watched as Shiro, Keith, and Pidge looked at one another. Shiro answered with a bit of hesitation, "It's not _bad_ at all, not painful, just different. You feel like you're sharing the same space, the same mind with your lion. You can see what the other is seeing."

"People look different," Keith added. "Everyone had this…glow inside of them."

Pidge nodded. "Yeah, I could see that you were overloaded with Quintessence. The radiance was intense…it was all shining white." Coran saw Allura almost nod at that.

Shiro shuddered briefly. "Darzi…he was revolting. Like the worst polluted muck you can imagine. Compared to everyone else it was obvious that he was damaged. And then when Black did…whatever he did it seemed to draw a lot of my strength out of me. Like it needed both of us to happen."

"And yet you are here and talking and able to move," Allura observed with an accusatory glance.

Shiro sat up at that. "Princess, all we can do is describe what happened."

Coran gripped Allura's shoulder. "All right, I think we've gotten as far as we can for now. Perhaps I should look through the archives and see if the last paladins left any records, observations of this phenomenon." Allura glanced at him and nodded, letting the matter drop for now.

"Besides," he continued, "I'm afraid we need to do one more thing before we leave."

* * *

Iverson took one more look around, making sure everything was in place. Even doubled, the line of cameras stretched the length of a football field in front of the Garrison's perimeter. The platform with six miked podia was in place. The enormous alien ship was positioned about a mile behind the platform.

Everyone was ready and waiting.

Iverson lifted the sleek white alien communicator to his mouth and spoke. "We're ready."

The rushing sound of displaced air overlaid with a rising hum caused the media crews and observers to look up.

Five large, lion-shaped ships descended and landed in perfect formation directly behind the platform. Five pairs of eyes flashed gold. Five heads lowered and opened their jaws.

As everyone watched, five armored figures emerged. A sixth person, in an elegant but practical combat uniform, followed the man in black and allowed him to assist her from the lion and up to the platform. Each of them took position behind a podium as the lion ships sat up once more.

The woman's gaze swept slowly across the crowd of people, making every one of them think she was looking at them for a moment.

"Greetings, people of Earth. I am Princess Allura of the planet Altea. I have been asked by your Galaxy Garrison and Earthforce to take this opportunity and introduce the Voltron Force. These five young people from your planet were brought to us by chance, but have come together to bring back Voltron, the Defender of the Universe.

"We will now hear a few of your questions."

To her far left, McClain made finger guns at a red-haired woman among the reporters.

Iverson groaned and let his head fall into one hand.

* * *

Haggar had waited for _quintants_ , nearly half a lunar cycle, monitoring Zarkon's thoughts and moods with spells that she would never share. Should the Galra Emperor discover them, he would try and kill her on the spot. And as long as he held the bayard of the Black Lion, they were too evenly matched for her to risk such a confrontation.

But Zarkon had finally begun to calm down after Voltron and the Alteans escaped. Now was the time to approach him, especially as she had an idea on how they could track Champion. Did he not bear her gift? And was she not capable of sensing her work and its effects? All that was needed was research on how to amplify her magical senses and she would be able to pinpoint his location at greater and greater distances, just as she had the moment he entered the base. She could already sense Altean life force when in deep meditation, so the theory was sound.

She entered the audience chamber and inclined her head, as always. Zarkon brooded, stroking the bayard as he replayed the battle in his mind. Haggar waited, rather that interrupt him and dare angering him.

Suddenly he growled and flung the bayard across the floor. That surprised her. It was his most treasured possession, his reminder of how far he had risen since the days of being the Black Paladin and the leader of a single planet, one of five members of Voltron.

"I know I'm right! It's not enough!"

She edged closer, putting sympathetic attention in her posture. "Sire?"

"We've accomplished great things over the eons, Haggar. Great things. But we've done it by overwhelming numbers, by creating the sentries and improving them so a single Galra officer can command thousands of expendable troops. But that innovation happened long ago and, with Voltron's return, the game is changing."

Haggar was surprised Zarkon had finally noticed. The more spread out their influence, the harder it got to keep the Empire pacified. It was one of the reasons she had driven her druids so hard in crafting the new process to harvest Quintessence – they had barely been able to keep up with the growing demand with the old methods.

"What are you thinking, sire?"

"We need to expand the abilities of the sentries. We need more options than the old genetic imprints of our officers. We need more diverse source material."

He paused, then looked her in the face. "We need the Skydancer."

"Who?"

"The one in the Red Lion. He held me off for an extended time. He woke the lion's rail gun. There was one point where I actually began to worry that my shield would not withstand his assault. He is possibly the most talented pilot I have ever seen." Zarkon stood and strode to the enormous window, looking out as drones repaired the damage to the base. "With his genetic blueprint incorporated into the fighters, they would be much improved in their capabilities. Possibly the sentries as well, should he prove to be skilled in hand-to-hand combat."

Haggar was intrigued but unsure. "It is an idea, but I need to research it closely. Those Paladins are not any species we know well. We must ensure that the genetic material is compatible. If you will be patient, I have enough left over from my work with Champion to make the experiment."

Zarkon nodded at her, pleased that she supported his idea.

"At the same time, I can research my own idea. If I am successful, I will have a way to track Champion at great distances. We find him, and we find your Skydancer."

* * *

And that's all, folks! I am pretty certain there will be a sequel to this in the future (because Keith is my favorite and I can't stop putting him in peril and there's all kinds of plot threads to pick up like the Holts, etc.), but I'm going to give some love to other fics first. Please feel free to follow me if you don't already do so for updates! Thank you to everyone who has read and commented on the first of my "Voltron" fanfics!


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